Sunil Deodhar: The Maharashtra man behind BJP’s Tripura sweep
, ET Bureau|
Mar 04, 2018, 11.25 PM IST
AGARTALA/MUMBAI: To put Sunil Deodhar in a mould is quite difficult. The RSS pracharak has adapted to local northeast customs by eating pork, and in just over two years of moving to Tripura, become fluent in Kokborok — his admirers say he is more fluent in the native language of the local Borok people than outgoing chief minister Manik Sarkar.
As in charge of the BJP’s election campaign, he has helped the party conquer a state that until now was a red bastion. While many had doubted the BJP’s chances in Tripura, Deodhar was quite confident.
“Whether I remain alive or not, you would get Tripura for sure,” he had reportedly told BJP chief Amit Shah two years ago. While the lines might seem dramatic, those close to Deodhar said BJP workers in the state were specifically targeted by the left government.
“There were a number of attacks on BJP workers. Party state chief Biplab Deb was attacked and so was Subal Bhowmik, our vice president of the party,” said Dinesh Kanji, a journalist who wrote a book, ‘Illusion and Reality: Manik Sarkar, the Red Face of Anarchy’. Deodhar himself faced two attacks, one in Manik Sarkar’s constituency of Dhanpur and the other at Gomti.
The RSS pracharak was, in fact, prepared. Some of his close associates from his organisation, My Home India that works in the northeast, were shadowing him all the time.
Most members in the group of 30 were from Mumbai, the city that Deodhar belongs to. “Normally, a state in charge is at best a frequent visitor to the state … but Deodhar changed the definition of it by camping in Tripura. For the last two years and more, the Shamili maa building in Agartala was his residence,” said a BJP leader in Agartala.
Those close to Deodhar said his advantage was that he would go out of the way to assimilate with the local people. “He learnt Kokborok, the tribal language, in two years and speaks it better than Manik Sarkar. He began eating pork as it was the common diet here. Even when his doctor advised him to stop eating non-veg food due to his weight issues, he did not stop as whenever he went to people’s houses he was offered non-veg and he did not want to offend his hosts,” said Kanji, the journalist.
Deodhar is so fond of his two dogs — named Laptop and Facebook — that he brought them to Tripura from Delhi. One of his passions is listening to Lata Mangeshkar songs, and he has a huge collection of those.
As in charge of the BJP’s election campaign, he has helped the party conquer a state that until now was a red bastion. While many had doubted the BJP’s chances in Tripura, Deodhar was quite confident.
“Whether I remain alive or not, you would get Tripura for sure,” he had reportedly told BJP chief Amit Shah two years ago. While the lines might seem dramatic, those close to Deodhar said BJP workers in the state were specifically targeted by the left government.
“There were a number of attacks on BJP workers. Party state chief Biplab Deb was attacked and so was Subal Bhowmik, our vice president of the party,” said Dinesh Kanji, a journalist who wrote a book, ‘Illusion and Reality: Manik Sarkar, the Red Face of Anarchy’. Deodhar himself faced two attacks, one in Manik Sarkar’s constituency of Dhanpur and the other at Gomti.
The RSS pracharak was, in fact, prepared. Some of his close associates from his organisation, My Home India that works in the northeast, were shadowing him all the time.
Most members in the group of 30 were from Mumbai, the city that Deodhar belongs to. “Normally, a state in charge is at best a frequent visitor to the state … but Deodhar changed the definition of it by camping in Tripura. For the last two years and more, the Shamili maa building in Agartala was his residence,” said a BJP leader in Agartala.
Those close to Deodhar said his advantage was that he would go out of the way to assimilate with the local people. “He learnt Kokborok, the tribal language, in two years and speaks it better than Manik Sarkar. He began eating pork as it was the common diet here. Even when his doctor advised him to stop eating non-veg food due to his weight issues, he did not stop as whenever he went to people’s houses he was offered non-veg and he did not want to offend his hosts,” said Kanji, the journalist.
Deodhar is so fond of his two dogs — named Laptop and Facebook — that he brought them to Tripura from Delhi. One of his passions is listening to Lata Mangeshkar songs, and he has a huge collection of those.
