The newly elected Member of Parliamentarian (MP) from West Tripura Lok Sabha seat Biplab Kumar Deb said his priority is to provide employment to youths.
“I am collecting people’s feedback. People need employment. I can’t do everything as many of these things would require some facilities that are unavailable in Tripura. But Tripura can witness two big things – medical tourism and spiritual tourism”, he said while speaking to HT.
Deb won the parliamentary poll from West Tripura constituency with a margin of 6,11,578 votes over his nearest contestant and opposition INDIA bloc partner Congress candidate Ashish Kumar Saha.
His winning margin was the highest in the history of Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Speaking about the factors that led to his victory, Deb said he feels the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led guarantee, people’s faith in BJP and public aspirations led to this result.
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“It’s a fact that I initiated many things, but everything was not done. After I was nominated to contest in the Lok Sabha polls, faith in the BJP and Modi guarantee along with people’s aspirations- all came together to drive people to cast their mandates rising above party, identity and religion”, said Deb.
While speaking about initiatives taken during his tenure as chief minister, Deb stated that he undertook initiatives to hand over a new building of Indira Gandhi Memorial (IGM) Hospital in Agartala to Apollo Hospitals so that a large number of Bangladesh-based patients could visit here where they would feel comfortable due to similarity in linguistic, culture and history.
He claimed that Tripura has huge scope of medical tourism from which economy of ₹400-500 crore could be retained here.
“There is huge opportunity of employment from this sector. Hotels, tourism, transport, food industry, religious tourism will develop”, he said.
He also shed light on industrial development and spoke about his loyalty to the party.
“I have done both state and national politics. When I was Rajya Sabha MP, I used to stay in Delhi and Haryana. After winning the Lok Sabha polls, I started visiting local areas. I am a loyal soldier, and I shall do whatever my party and central leaders ask me to do”, he said.
He also spoke at length about PM Modi.
“Modiji might have to talk with alliance partners now before taking any decision. But we think that he will keep on taking strong decisions”, he said.
Spending 16 years in Delhi, Biplab Deb returned to Tripura in 2015 as in-charge of BJP’s Maha Jansampark Abhiyan barely three years before the state assembly polls.
A year later, he became BJP state president and in 2018, he assumed the chair of chief minister after his party came to power in the state for the first time in alliance with a regional indigenous political party Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT).
Later, in 2022, Deb resigned from his CM post and later was elected as the lone Rajya Sabha MP from Tripura.