AGARTALA, March 21: The Left parties and the Congress, which are constituents of the opposition bloc INDIA, have formed a committee to plan joint campaigns for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Tripura, leaders of both sides have said.
CPI(M) legislator and opposition leader in the assembly Jitendra Chaudhury and veteran Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman will lead the 25-member panel as joint convenors.
“We are jointly contesting the Lok Sabha elections as partners of the INDIA bloc to defeat the BJP-led NDA. The state-level committee has been constituted to handle the campaign of the opposition bloc for the Lok Sabha elections,” Roy Barman said during a press conference here.
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Such committees will also be formed at the district and sub-division levels for better coordination in the campaign, he said.
“We will deploy all our resources in the ensuing elections. I appeal to electors to take note of the country’s disastrous situation before casting their votes in the polls,” he said.
Roy Barman also attacked the NDA candidate for East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency, Kriti Singh Debbarma, alleging that she has “no commitment to the people of Tripura as she was born in Meghalaya’s Shillong and completed her schooling there”.
“We have not seen any contribution from her. She has no commitment to the people of Tripura. The woman, who promised to achieve Greater Tipraland, has not kept her word. Tribal people will give a befitting reply to her,” he said.
Chaudhury said as an INDIA bloc partner, the Left Front will also jointly campaign with the Congress candidate in the parliamentary elections.
Leaders of the Left parties and the Congress will join rallies for the submission of nominations by the INDIA bloc candidates for two Lok Sabha constituencies and the bypoll to the Ramnagar assembly seat.
INDIA bloc candidate for Ramnagar assembly seat Ratan Das will submit his nomination paper on March 22, while Congress’ nominee from West Tripura Lok Sabha seat, Asish Kumar Saha, will submit his paper on March 27.
Left Front candidate for East Tripura Lok Sabha seat Rajendra Reang will submit his nomination paper on March 28.
Roy Barman also said, “There has been a similarity in two parties when it comes to secularism and democracy even as ideological differences persist. We are not power mongers at all.”
“It is the Tipra Motha, which promised to achieve Greater Tipraland and sought a constitutional solution to the problems of tribal people but forgot those promises for power,” he said.
Notably, Chief Minister Manik Saha had recently said that Tipra Motha, which emerged as Tripura’s main opposition party in the 2023 elections, joined his government as it realised that only Prime Minister Narendra Modi could ensure the development of the indigenous people. (PTI)
