Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb has revealed that Union home minister Amit Shah, when he was the BJP national president, had spoken about expanding the party’s footprints in the neighbouring countries of Nepal and Sri Lanka.

A video of Deb addressing a meeting of the ruling BJP in Agartala on Saturday shows the first-time chief minister making the claim about Shah’s overseas expansion plans.

“We were discussing about the party at the guest house in Agartala when he (Shah) was the national president. Someone from among us pointed out to Amitji that BJP was doing well in the country... In response, Amit Shah said there is still Sri Lanka... Nepal is left. We have to take the party there… we have to win there also. That is his (Shah) mindset, to take the party across the world. Under him BJP became the largest political party in the world, bigger than the bigger communist party,” a relaxed and smiling Deb told the gathering in the video doing the rounds of social media.

The chief minister, who is prone to making controversial statements and claims, also said at Saturday’s meeting held on the Union budget that the BJP would win both the Kerala and Tamil Nadu Assembly polls because both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah are working in these states. “No CPM or Congress government in Kerala this time. Modi has reached there too. Amit (Shah) has already reached. In Tamil Nadu too, there will be no government other than the BJP’s,” Deb said.

The BJP rules Tripura along with ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura(IPFT), after ending the Left Front’s 25-year reign in 2018. The state BJP and Sanjay Mishra, officer on special duty to the chief minister, came out in Deb’s support on Monday.

Both described the speech as a sort of pep talk to keep the party rank and file motivated with BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharjee adding that the chief minister was articulating the party’s plans to extend India’s ideology across the world for peace.

“The capitalists and the communists cannot ensure peace and development. We can do it with our ideology and spiritual bent of mind. BJP-led India can be a margdarshak (guide). The BJP’s ambition is not only to win elections. There are followers of communist ideology in the world. Why can’t we spread our ideologue Deendayal Upadhyayaji’s political philosophy, which is integral humanism, aimed at developing a person’s body and mind at the same time? We have already managed to take yoga to the world stage. Our chief minister was trying to convey the same thing at the party meet,” Bhattacharjee said.