Ending days of speculation, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Monday that Manik Saha will return as the state chief of Tripura.
His name for the state's top post for a second time was announced after the newly-elected lawmakers of the party voted in his favor in a meeting held in the state capital Agartala this evening.
"A meeting of the legislature party was held today at the election office of the state BJP and Dr. Manik Saha was re-elected as the leader of the legislature party," the Tripura unit of the BJP tweeted.
Saha's return to the state chief's chair comes at a time when news reports suggested that he was on his way out and parliamentarian Pratima Bhoumik was set to take over his position in the northeastern state.
The 70-year-old was appointed to the top post in the state last year after the central leadership of the BJP, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, asked then-state chief Biplab Kumar Deb to resign and hand over the reins to Saha.
In the election results announced last week, Saha registered victory from the Town Bardowali Assembly constituency. He was previously the BJP's state president from 2020 to 2022.
Saha's astute leadership is being credited for the BJP's performance in the state, given that Tripura is among the three Hindu majority states in India's northeast with Assam and Sikkim being the other two.
Moreover, among the three states whose results were announced last week, it is the only state where BJP won a majority on its own.
The party's second consecutive victory in Tripura is being seen as the barometer of the BJP's popularity ahead of national polls in 2024 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek a third straight term.
Saha will take oath as the head of the new government in Tripura on Wednesday. The ceremony will be attended by PM Modi and other top politicians of the BJP.