Accusing the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal of not giving democratic space to political opponents Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on April 8 claimed that BJP will come to power in the State in the coming days to usher in a peaceful, transparent and development-oriented regime.
Mr. Saha speaking at a felicitation programme organised by the BJP on the theme 'Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat' at the National Library here said a double-engine government can propel the growth of a State.
He urged the people of Bengal to go for this double engine model with the same party at the Centre and in the State.
Mr. Saha said while coming from the airport he could see flags and flexes of only the TMC. This shows that the TMC does not want to give any democratic space to the other Opposition parties.
You may not allow BJP flags but the saffron party has captured the imagination of common people who believe in the development and growth mantra of BJP, the 'Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat' concept enunciated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Tripura CM said.
"Didi the word of democracy sounds out of place when you utter this word. Everyone knows what is the situation in Bengal. How thousands of BJP karyakartas were attacked, beaten up, their houses looted, and made to flee from homes and how many were murdered and raped after the assembly elections here (in 2021).
"Your regime had only been marked by clashes, bombing and murders. There has to be an end to this which will happen. After Tripura, Bengal will be the next State in the region where this will happen," Mr. Saha said.
He said "After counting of votes, counting of notes succeeded in Bengal. Heavyweight (TMC) politicians, whose swagger and intimidatory tactics are used to create an aura of invincibility and fear among the people are currently behind bars one after another caught in big scams. Small, medium and big fishes are coming to the net as the trends indicate. This is not a very happy situation for a State like Bengal which was called the citadel of culture and progressiveness in the country."
He said in Tripura you can see flags of every party — Congress, CPI(M) and claimed that there had not been any single instance of political murder in Tripura after the elections and the stray cases of post-poll violence there had been engineered by disgruntled Opposition party members.
Mr. Saha said there had been traditional bonhomie and close ties between the two States, but TMC tried to disrupt the situation by trying to make inroads in Tripura three-four times but was "rejected" by the people of the northeastern State.
"The TMC got less percentage of votes than even NOTA in Tripura Assembly election," he said.
Slamming the previous CPI(M) led Left Front government in Tripura for unleashing a reign of terror and violence during its rule, Mr. Saha said a late Marxist patriarch had coined the term scientific rigging and that was also put to use by his comrades in Tripura to win polls.
"We had resolved our government will under no circumstances allow scientific rigging, no false voting and even the opposition had to thank the Election Commission of India for smooth conduct of polls," he said, adding the "unethical understanding" between CPI(M)-Congress in the assembly polls had robbed ruling BJP some of the seats.
"We call it unethical as Congress had borne the brunt of terror and atrocities like the BJP during decades of CPI(M) misrule in Tripura but again the Congress entered into an understanding with CPI(M) to prevent BJP from coming to power but the people of Tripura reposed their faith on the development-oriented, transparent governance plank of ours," Mr. Saha said.
Criticising the TMC for politics of appeasement, Mr. Saha said "We don't believe in this politics of division for vote bank politics. We believe in inclusiveness where all communities will be accorded same importance and benefits and there will be no appeasement."
On the issue of demand of West Bengal government employees demanding raise in dearness allowance, Mr. Saha said his government had already increased DA by several points — which is much higher than the DA given by the West Bengal government.
He said from one national highway, Tripura now has six NHs including four-lane NHs apart from four ropeways for the hilly State and the newly revamped international airport.
