Seat adjustments with Cong, tribal party to defeat BJP in Tripura: Yechury

Agartala, Jan 11 (IANS) CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday said that his party is ready to make seat adjustments with Congress and the tribal party TIPRA to defeat the ruling BJP in the coming Assembly polls in Tripura.

He, however, criticised the West Bengal unit of the party for forming a "front" with Congress and other parties in the 2021 Assembly polls.

Yechury said that defeating the ruling BJP in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Tripura is the principal target of the CPI-M and for this, formation of an alternative secular and democratic front is necessary.

To a question, he said that the party's Central Committee had criticised the West Bengal unit for taking the seat adjustment to the level of a political front - People's Front.

"Forming a political front is an alliance. Seat adjustment aimed to pull maximum votes in favour of the secular parties. In the CPI-M's 23rd party Congress (held at Kannur in Kerala) a suitable electoral tactical policy was adopted to fight against the BJP and RSS. We are seeking secular parties' unity," the CPI-M chief told the media after the party's two-day state committee meeting.

Justifying the seat adjustments with the Congress in the forthcoming Assembly polls in Tripura, Yechury said that the Left parties fought against the Congress along with the elements now in power for promulgation of the emergency in 1975, but now for the sake of democracy, communal harmony and secularism, unity of all secular parties including the Congress are crucial to fight against the BJP.

Regarding the TIPRA's (Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance) demand for a separate tribal state "Greater Tipraland", the CPI-M leader said that his party also has been trying to provide maximum possible autonomy to the tribals and an amendment was moved in the parliament long back in this regard.

CPI-M Tripura state Secretary Jitendra Chowdhury, who was also present in the media briefing, said that earlier some other outfits had been demanding for sovereign Tripura, now the TIPRA wants constitutional solutions to the tribal issues.

Refuting the claim of Union Home Minister Amit Shah that "Communist parties have been finished from the entire world", Chowdhury said that Shah distorted the facts even as the Communist parties even very recently came to power in Nepal, Brazil and many other Latin American countries.

Urging the civil society to raise their protests against the uncontrolled violence inTripura, the CPI-M state Secretary alleged that in all types of crimes including drugs peddling BJP leaders and cadres are involved but the police did not take any actions.

"Country's Home Minister has been spreading false information and making fake claims about the BJP government's performance in Tripura. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma during a pre-poll rally on Monday in southern Tripura himself confessed that before elections he gave false promises," he said.

Chowdhury said all the opposition parties would apprise the visiting full Election Commission team about the BJP's terror, violence and all the farce elections that took place after the BJP-led government came to power in Tripura in March 2018.