Tripura BJP denies link with bike-borne attackers

There have been allegations that its youth wing cadres were behind the attacks on Opposition supporters

Tripura’s ruling BJP on Tuesday denied any link with the gangs involved in attacks on programmes of the Opposition parties and assault on their supporters.

There have been scores of incidents in which bike-borne criminals wearing helmets resorted to violence in Agartala and elsewhere in the State.

Major Opposition parties — the CPI(M), Congress and the Trinamool Congress — have long been alleging that the BJP was letting their youth wing cadres loose to target ranks of the Opposition parties. They said the police were not taking action against the perpetrators despite registration of specific complaints.

BJP has rejected outright that the party had anything to do with attacks and claimed that the allegation was politically motivated. “Have you found any of them carrying BJP flags and chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ slogans?” State’s Information Minister Sushanta Chowdhury said in his reply to a question at the party headquarter here.

Mr. Chowdhury, who was earlier with the Congress, was made a Cabinet Minister in August last year. He is now regularly briefing newsmen at the party office. Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has also engaged him to address the media on decisions of the Council of Ministers, a job earlier held by Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath.

Mr. Chowdhury denied that police were acting in a partisan manner. “Many of our [BJP] workers are languishing in jails owing to complaints from Opposition parties”, he stated.

He claimed that the police were working independently to take action against criminals. He alleged that the bike-borne gangs were part of a “sinister conspiracy of the Opposition parties”.