Left parties and Congress to fight jointly in two Tripura LS seats

way2barak, March 17 : The CPM led Left Front on Sunday announced its candidate for the Tripura East Lok Sabha seat (ST) and decided to support the Congress in the other seat – Tripura West parliamentary constituency.

After the CPM’s state committee and Left Front’s separate meetings, Front convener Narayan Kar said that former CPM MLA Rajendra Reang would be the Left parties’ nominee in the Tripura East Lok Sabha seat, reserved for the tribals.

Kar said that former CPM MLA Ratan Das, who is also the Secretary of the CPM West District committee, would be fielded in the Ramnagar assembly seat (in West Tripura), where by-elections would be held on April 19.

The Assembly seat was lying vacant after the death of BJP MLA Surajit Datta on December 28.

The Left leader while talking to the media said that the Left Front as a part of the INDIA bloc decided to fight the poll battle together with the other partners of the grouping including Congress to defeat the BJP in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.

CPM state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury said that the Left parties would soon hold meetings with the Congress and other INDIA block partners to chalk out the campaign and other strategies.

Congress on March 8 nominated its state party President Ashish Kumar Saha as candidate for the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat.

The CPM won both the seats many times since 1952 while the Congress has also won a few times.

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

However, both have been dropped this time and ‘Maharani’ Kriti Singh Debbarma and former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb were named for the Tripura East Lok Sabha and Tripura West seats, respectively.

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

Lok Sabha elections will be held in West Tripura parliamentary seat on April 19 while the Tripura East (ST) constituency will go to the polls in the second phase on April 26.