BJP chief eats at Tripura tribal’s house

Agartala, May 7 (IANS) BJP President Amit Shah on Sunday had lunch at a tribal's house in Tripura's capital Agartala before he left for Delhi at the end of a two-day tour of the Left-ruled state.

Shah, accompanied by Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and state Bharatiya Janata Party President Biplab Kumar Deb, ate food at the house of party activist Chirasundar Debbarma at Bagaban Thakur Chowmuhani on the city outskirts.

Debbarma's wife Budhulekha was a BJP candidate in the Agartala Municipal Corporation polls in 2015.

"We arranged for both traditional tribal and Bengali food for Amit-ji and other party leaders," Debbarma told the media, as a visibly happy Budhulekha said Amit Shah was welcomed into the house as per the traditional Hindu rituals.

Shah told the media on Saturday that the tribal couple with whom he had lunch in West Bengal last month was "forcibly" made to join the ruling Trinamool Congress.

"The tribal couple did not join the Trinamool on their own; they were forced to join the ruling party."

Raju Mahali and his wife Geeta had hogged media limelight when Shah ate food at the tribal couple's village home at Naxalbari in West Bengal on April 25. On May 3, the couple reportedly joined the Trinamool.

During his two-day stay in Tripura, the BJP chief held a series of meetings with leaders of the BJP and its frontal organisations, intellectuals, and select media persons to finalise the party's strategy for the Tripura assembly polls, likely to be held in February 2018.

The BJP chief also addressed a public meeting at Kumarghat in northern Tripura.