Agartala: In a significant political development, Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee President Asish Kumar Saha and senior Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman met TIPRA Motha founder Pradyot Kishore Debbarman and Leader of the Opposition Animesh Debbarma with an “offer for alliance” in the Lok Sabha elections on Friday.
Sources said it was an official call for TIPRA Motha to join the Opposition Bloc INIDA that came into being after all the major anti-BJP parties joined forces. The principal opposition party TIPRA Motha is already in talks with the Centre on their core demand of a “constitutional solution” for the 13 lakh tribal population.
Differentiating between talks with the Centre and what transpired in the meeting, Leader of the Opposition Animesh Debbarma said, “There is a clear distinction between these two. We are not in talks with the BJP. We are consistently pursuing the central government to fulfill our demands which has nothing to do with the BJP. The meeting that has happened in the office is purely political. The PCC President and Sudip Roy Barman spoke to us. We have advanced our demands. They are going to Delhi to meet the party high command and if we arrive at any understanding that would be made public.”
On being asked whether the meeting concluded on a fruitful note, the senior leader said, “I think we should not forget that Congress has given the sixth schedule when Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister. The Congress party increased the number of reserved seats in the state. Congress knows our problems. Only that much I can tell regarding the meeting.”
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman said that PCC top leaders are leaving for Delhi on Saturday to attend the screening committee meeting.
“We have a meeting of the screening committee on Saturday. We have had a good discussion. We shall place everything before the party’s high command and seek guidance for the way forward. I have also spoken to the CPIM state secretary to ask him how we should proceed in the ensuing elections. He is also quite optimistic to bring forth a united platform of the opposition parties,” said Barman.
According to Barman, Congress’s stand on the demands of the indigenous people of Tripura is both “solid” and “progressive”. “We have already said the constitution should be amended to ensure direct funding to the sixth schedule areas. Whatever steps are needed to be taken for the socio-economic upliftment of the indigenous people would be taken from the end of the Congress party. We haven’t retracted from our stance,” said Barman.
The Congress MLA condemned the recent controversy over the script and said, “A dirty politics has come into play regarding the script issue. It shouldn’t have happened.”
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Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee President Asish Kumar Saha, on the other hand, said that the BJP government had miserably failed to implement even one of their poll promises in the last year.
“Congress’s contribution to the implementation of the sixth schedule, reservation in jobs, and a host of other issues are still remembered by the people of the tribal communities. On the other hand, BJP stands just at the opposite pole which had promised a lot but delivered nothing,” Saha claimed.
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