Tripura Housewife turns Politician

Bijita Nath a 40-year-old housewife who won from the Kadamtala seat of North Tripura district a little known Tripura village is the lone woman minister in the Left Front government. A homemaker propelled into the rough and tumble of politics, Bijita Nath never held any government post and never contested any election before the Feb 23 assembly election in Tripura. Wife of a schoolteacher and mother of two teens, Nath confessed that she does not know anything about administrative formalities and the bureaucratic method of functioning. The graduate from Tripura University won from the Kadamtala constituency by a slender margin of 128 votes defeating former assembly speaker Jyotirmoy Nath of the Congress. Nath who had been associated with the party’s Students Federation of India (SFI) since she was in Class 7 and became a member of CPI-M in 2002 is worried about how she will balance the political world and her home.

Chandana Bhowmik