LS Polls: INDIA bloc banking on joint effort to take on ruling BJP in Tripura

Agartala, March 20 (IANS) Eight parties of the opposition INDIA bloc in Tripura announced on Wednesday to undertake a joint campaign for the Lok Sabha elections to take on the ruling BJP-led alliance in the state. 

After holding the first meeting of the eight INDIA bloc constituents in Tripura on Wednesday, Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barma said that a 25-member election management committee has been formed with him and CPI-M state Secretary Jitendra Chaudhury as its joint convenors.

Roy Barma also urged the voters to apply their minds and vote “judiciously” in favour of the INDIA bloc candidates in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to the two Parliamentary seats in Tripura.

“Despite having differences on ideological grounds, we have come together to save the Constitution, democracy, secularism, and the federal nature of the country. We are fighting for the sake of the overall interest of the people,” Roy Barma told the media.

Jitendra Chaudhury, who is also a CPI-M central committee member, said that during the freedom struggle, people came together to fight and chase the British out of the country.

“Our fight is to save that freedom today,” Chaudhury said.

Besides the five Left parties -- CPI-M, CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc, and CPI (ML) -- the Congress, Gana Mancha, and Tripura the Peoples Party are the constituents of the INDIA bloc in Tripura.

As the nominees of the INDIA bloc, former CPI-M MLA Rajendra Reang would contest the Tripura East Lok Sabha seat (ST), while state Congress President Ashish Kumar Saha, also a former MLA, will contest the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat.

The BJP won both seats for the first time in 2019, with Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik (Tripura West) and teacher-turned-politician Rebati Tripura (Tripura East) emerging triumphant.

However, both have been dropped this time, as Kriti Singh Debbarma and former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb have been named for the Tripura East and Tripura West seats, respectively.

A resident of Chhattisgarh, Debbarma, who's a member of the erstwhile royal dynasty in the state, is the elder sister of Tipra Motha Party (TMP) supremo and royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman.

Polling for the West Tripura Parliamentary seat will be held on April 19, while the Tripura East (ST) constituency will go to the polls on April 26.

--IANS

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