Internal bickering cast a shadow over Congress’s — the main opposition party — law disobedience movement against the ‘all-round failures of the CPI(M) government’ in Agartala on Thursday. A number of senior leaders did not turn up for the afternoon event which gathered hardly five thousand party supporters.
The incumbent office bearers close to the Sudip Roy Burman — leader of the opposition in the State assembly — had put in much effort to make the event thriving in view of erosion in the party following Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) surge.
TMC, which is regularly getting rank and file from the Congress in its fold, had a ‘full house’ convention attended by the party’s national general secretary Mukul Roy on Wednesday.
Prominent leaders like Ratan Lal were absent and some like former PCC chief Birajit Sinha hesitantly jointed the rally midway. Congress supporters gathered at the newly inaugurated Swami Vivekananda stadium
from where PCC president Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl and PCC working president Ashis Kumar Saha led them in a procession.
Sudip Roy Burman — who has been opposed by several leaders and blamed by many for the current exodus from Congress — followed the rally in his official car. A huge security deployment stopped the rally at Abala Chowmuhani near the old secretariat building.
Leaders including Asish Kumar Saha ended up in a scuffle with police officers before a magistrate declared the assembly unlawful and had all the participants arrested for violating prohibitory orders.
Mr. Saha later said the movement was successful and people exhibited their grievances against ‘misrule’ of the CPI(M) government. He said AICC observer and former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro would soon
visit the State to oversee party programme.
