 "Sudip Roy Barman")
When an MLA snatched the ceremonial mace of the Speaker in the middle of the assembly session in Tripura on Monday and made a dash with it, many in the state saw it as a repeat of what had once happened in the same house in the 1970s. It was Nripen Chakraborty, former chief minister and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) stalwart, who had enacted a similar scene in the assembly when he was in the opposition. Now it was the turn of Sudip Roy Barman, a political heavyweight and member of Trinamool Congress, to re-enact the same. But for the “firebrand, dashing and outspoken” Barman, many say, snatching the mace was probably the easy road to hog some limelight.
Though he regretted later for having indulged in such an act, he maintained that the Speaker of the house was biased against the opposition while conducting house proceedings, provoking him to snatch the mace as a mark of protest. His act made headlines across the country, but then, any limelight is better than no limelight for a politician who has spent years only in the opposition.
With a political career spanning more than 20 years, Barman has seen Tripura politics come a long way. Son of Samir Ranjan Barman, yesteryears’ Congress leader of Tripura who became chief minister of the state for around a year, 50-year-old Barman had been a staunch Congress leader since the 1990s when he entered politics. In return, the party shouldered him with important responsibilities including the state party chief, legislature party leader and opposition leader. He was also the chief ministerial face of the party in the last state polls held in 2013.
Despite having enjoyed a fair share of success within the party, Barman, who has represented the Agartala constituency uninterrupted since 1998, always found his seat in the assembly house reserved in the opposition benches. For a strong anti-Left leader like him, the contemporary political landscape in the tiny Northeastern state of Tripura, which is dominated by CPI (M), there appears too little space to taste power.
But many see Barman as a “fighter” who could be a rallying point for alternative politics in Tripura in the future. “He has been a relentless anti-CPI (M) crusader and a fighter all throughout his life. All his political philosophy is centred on anti-communism. He is an aggressive and firebrand leader who can be the face of the anti-Left front in future,” says an Agartala-based observer.
So strong are his anti-Left sentiments that Barman, along with five other MLAs, quit the Congress party in June this year when it allied with CPI (M) to contest the West Bengal polls. Terming Mamata Banerjee and her party as the “perfect anti-dote to CPI (M)”, he then joined the Trinamool Congress. Many saw him coming out stronger when he quit the Congress for “compromising” on ideology. His departure from the Congress, the party that nurtured him, further fortified his anti-Left image in the state.
His exit has almost wiped out the Congress party’s existence in Tripura politics. Barman’s blow was too big for the Congress party to withstand. The grand-old party, which once ruled the state, has now been reduced to four seats in the 60-member Tripura assembly. Barman’s desertion of Congress was a gain for the Trinamool as it could overnight make a mark in the state politics by becoming the second largest party in the assembly.
Many in Tripura see Barman, who is a mechanical engineer as well as a law graduate, as an easy-going person. Political observers say Barman might still be in search of a strong launch pad. “If any other party can offer him a better hope and a strong anti-CPI (M) base, he would embrace it quickly. He has fire in his belly to dislodge the Left front from power and prove his mettle someday,” adds the observer.
But then, controversies seem to trail Barman more often than not. The father of two daughters and a son, Barman was also in the news about five years ago when he allegedly beat up two Border Security Force jawans at his residence.
