Manik Sarkar resigns as Tripura CM

Agartala: Outgoing Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar submitted his resignation to Governor Tathagata Roy here on Sunday, a day after the CPM-led Left Front was dethroned by the BJP-IPFT coalition after nearly 25 years in power. The governor advised Sarkar, who was chief minister since 1998, to continue until the new chief minister takes oath.

Coming out of the Raj Bhavan, Sarkar told reporters that he and his ministers would not have been able to run the government for so many years unless the people and the employees extended their cooperation to them.

He expressed gratitude to the people of the state and the staff members of the state administration. The BJP-IPFT combine scripted history on Saturday by winning the Tripura Assembly polls with a two-third majority, ending 25 years of uninterrupted rule of the CPM-led Left Front in the Northeastern state.

The BJP and the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) won 43 seats and the CPM won 16. Election on 59 seats of the 60-member Assembly was held on February 18. Polling was countermanded in one seat due to death of a CPM candidate.