The Congress in Tripura has yet to elect a Legislature Party leader even one-and-a-half months after the results of the Assembly election were declared.
The party won only 10 seats in the sixty-member Assembly.
Despite facing humiliating defeat at the hands of the CPI(M), infighting in the Congress continues unabated. The squabbling led to ouster of senior leader Subal Bhowmik who floated a new party - Tripura Pragatishil Kishan Congress.
Mr. Bhowmik has been repeatedly claiming that more leaders and workers are set to follow his path as there is no ‘democracy and aspiration in the Congress to defeat the Left front.’ “There is a strong need to have an alternative political equation in Tripura and we are working to achieve that,” he asserted on Saturday.
Congress leaders, including PCC chief Sudip Roy Burman, were reluctant to talk about a new emerging political combination. Mr. Burman and nine fellow MLAs are waiting for the selection of CLP leader by the party high command.
Party sources said six MLAs were eyeing the post, thus delaying the process.
Former Opposition leader Ratan Lal Nath, Mr. Sudip Roy Burman, MLAs Gopal Roy, Birajit Sinha, Jitendra Sarkar and Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl had staked claim for the position, party sources said.
Front runner
A strong lobby in the party wants Mr. Hrangkhawl to be CLP leader as this would ‘send out a positive message to tribal community in Tripura.’ After a long gap, the Congress had wrested a tribal seat from the CPI(M), thus Mr. Hrangkhawl emerged as a front runner.
