Leftists drop Manik Sarkar in Tripura, leaves only 13 seats for ally Congress

New Delhi

The Leftists in one time red forte seemed to have ended a mega journey and now realises the futility of major confrontation. Firstly, it buried old hatchet and has tied up with traditional bitter rivals Congress. 

The communists also decided to drop several of their top ranking leaders including four time Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and the likes of Badal Choudhary, Tapan Chakraborty and former Finance Minister Bhanulal Saha.

In fact as the CPI-M led Left Front decided to contest 47 seats, now the apprehension is even the Congress -Left Front alliance could face rough weather.

The Marxists dnd their friends have been left only 13 seats to fight in the Feb 16 60-member assembly elections.

Soon after Left Front announced its candidate list -in which it dropped several top leaders including former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar- the Congress leaders expressed their disappointment. The complaint was the Left Front has taken away unilaterally most seats, some of which are believed to be Congress strong hold.

CPI-M secretary Jitendra Choudhury and Left Front Convenor Narayan Kar in a press conference announced at Agartala on Jan 25vevening that that the CPI-M will fight in 43 seats while in one each CPI, RSP, FB will field their candidates. Left Front left, for the first time, one seat for an Independent. The rest 13 seats were kept aside for the Congress.

The Independent candidate is lawyer Purushuttom Roy Barman who is hardcore Marxists but not associated with CPI-M.

The Left dropped former four-time Chief Minister and incumbent Opposition leader  Manik Sarkar, former minister Badal Chowdhury- who is presently not in good health, and three former ministers - Tapan Chakraborty, Sahid Chowdhury, Banulal Saha.  "Three other sitting MLAs were also not nominated as some sests were sacrificed for the Congress," a party source said.

 Jitendra Choudhury said initially 12 seats were allotted for Congress, but as they pressed for Dharmanagar Seat for them, it was also given to them. He said, he talked to Tipra Motha supremo who has a strong base among tribals in 20 seats and the CPI-M is stillm open for an alliance.

The communists were ousted in the fiercely contested polls in 2018 when BJP in alliance with a tribal-based party came to power. Manik Sarkar, who is not contesting this year's polls, has been a four time Chief Minister. It is largely contended now that the communists have lost their support base considerably in this north eastern state.

 Congress  leader Sudip Roy Barman who was the initiator for the alliance has expressed his displeasure at the decision of the leftists to contest 47 seats leaving only 23 for the Congress.

TPCC president Birajit Sinha, who is now in Delhi, said, that party’s central leaders would hold meetings with CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and other Left leaders about the seat sharing arrangements and to cooperate more to snatch power from BJP.

Tripura goes to the polls on Feb 16 while Meghalaya and Nagaland have the voting on Feb 27.

In Tripura, the compulsions of electoral battles and the craze to take on BJP have brought two traditional 

rivals the Congress and the Left parties together. The CPI-M led Left Front and the Congress despite their 

strategic ties in central politics happened to be the two bitter rivals in Tripura’s sharply polarised bi-polar 

political set up.

A rally was organised by the communists and the Congress at Agartala recently. It was the first public display of the newly formed alliance— Democratic Secular Front where two 

former Chief Ministers- Samir Ranjan Barman (Congress) and Left Front’s Manik Sarkar participated.

Lone Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman, his father and former Chief Minister Samir Ranjan Barman, 

AICC secretary Szarita Laitphlang were seen walking down the roads at Agartala side by side with Left leaders 

including Manik Sarkar and Jitendra Chowdhury burying their long held hatchet for the first time in a public rally.

BJP leader and the state Chief Minister Manik Saha has reacted to Left-Congress coming together stating, 

“The relationship between Congress and the Left Front is nothing new".

In West Bengal in 2021 after the Left and the Congress party had ideologically backed Mamata Banerjee

and the Left and Congress have been decimated in the state.

Ends