The coming Assembly elections in Tripura is likely to be a fight between the CPI(M)-led Left Front and the BJP.
The State goes to the polls on February 18.
In the past, the electoral battles in the State had been between the CPI(M) and the Congress.
Sudip Roy Burman, the former State Congress president and MLA who has joined the BJP, said: “The Congress was not serious about fighting the CPI(M).” He claimed that the BJP would defeat the Marxists in the Assembly poll.
Mr. Burman, who headed the State Congress during the 2013 Assembly elections, told PTI: “In 2013, the CPI(M) faced strong anti-incumbency but the Congress central leadership helped the CPI(M) in the State clandestinely for enjoying the party’s support in Parliament.”
Shift of camp
CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat also admitted that this time, it was a contest between the Left Front and the BJP.
“All the earlier elections in the State were fought between the Left Front and the Congress but this time, it is a contest between the BJP and the Left Front as Congress leaders and supporters have joined the saffron party,” Mr. Karat said at an election meeting in south Tripura on Friday.
Six Congress MLAs, including Mr. Burman, had crossed over to the BJP. “We were forced to join the BJP as we found that the Congress is not serious about fighting the CPI(M),” Mr. Burman said.
Tripura Congress vice-president Tapas Dey said: “A communal party like the BJP became so strong in the State due to the misrule and partisan behaviour of the CPI(M).”
The CPI(M) never fulfilled the just demands of the people, he said and alleged: “They [CPI-M] have a vindictive attitude towards people who do not support them.”
CPI(M) spokesperson Gautam Das said Tripura was a model State in the country in terms of development. “The pro-people programmes of the Left Front government, especially for the poor and the working class, will bring it back to power,” he said.
Tie-up with IPFT
To garner the tribal vote that constitute around 31 per cent, the BJP has stitched an alliance with the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT). “The alliance between the BJP and the IPFT will make a strong impact in the 20 tribal reserved constituencies,” BJP spokesperson Mrinal Kanti Deb said.
Mr. Karat had, however, alleged that the IPFT was a mask of the insurgents, who had killed people of the State a decade-and-a-half ago. The BJP forging an alliance with such a party was tantamount to “sedition”, he had said.
Cautioning the people in the State, Mr. Karat had said, “The Assembly election in the State is important not only for Tripura, but for the entire India, as it will show which way the country will move.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president Amit Shah and a galaxy of party leaders will campaign in Tripura.
