Tripura Congress divided over alliance with Left

Agartala, Feb 22  Congress leaders in Tripura are sharply divided over a possible alliance the party may forge with the Left parties in the West Bengal assembly elections.

Tripura Congress president Birajit Sinha and some others say they will abide by any decision of the central leaders but opposition leader Sudip Roy Barman of the Congress and his father-cum-former chief minister Samir Ranjan Barman are strongly opposed to any alliance with the Left.

"We will abide by whatever decision the central leadership takes over the issue," Tripura Pradesh Congress chief Birajit Sinha said on Monday.

"The CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) is a policy-less party, it has no principles. People threw it out from power. Now it is again keen to return to power riding on the shoulder of Congress," Samir Ranjan Barman told reporters.

Sudip Roy Barman had sent a note to Congress president Sonia Gandhi arguing against the alliance with the Left in West Bengal, saying it will prove "harmful" to the Congress.

"Let us not forget that about 50,000 committed workers and leaders of the Congress were killed mercilessly by the CPI-M during their 34 years rule in West Bengal," Sudip Roy Barman said.

His note, made available to IANS, said: "The CPI-M had always tried to tarnish the image of Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi and always put Communism higher than patriotism."

But another senior Congress leader, Tapas Dey, said that it was due to the wrongdoing of the Barmans that the Congress was dislodged from power in 1993 in Tripura.

The ruling CPI-M ridiculed the comments of Congress leaders.

"The CPI-M has urged all democratic and secular parties to forge an alliance in West Bengal," CPI-M central committee member Gautam Das told reporters.

He accused Tripura Congress leaders of having propped up terrorist outfits in a bid to oust the Left Front government in Tripura in 1988.