The leader of the opposition and former chief minister, Manik Sarkar and other CPM MLAs were attacked in South Tripura district today, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb’s arguments that terror activities in the state have stopped after the 2018 elections fell flat. The assaults, according to the CPM, were carried out by miscreants acting on orders from the BJP leadership.
Mr Sarkar and other MLAs, including Deputy Opposition Leader Badal Choudhury, were on their way to speak with party supporters who had recently been targeted. However, in the Santirbazar district, their convoy was blocked and attacked by hundreds of people in the presence of state police.
According to the former Chief Minister, they arrived in Santirbazar to find a huge crowd of people standing on both sides of the road, raising slogans and demanding that they return.
“The in-charge of the Santirbazar police station demanded that we return,” he said. “When I told the people not to target the cops, they retaliated with sticks, bricks, eggs, and water bottles,” he said.
The former Chief Minister said that the police had previously prevented them from engaging with supporters. He also charged senior police officers with failing to take enough precautions for their transport.
According to Tripura Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath, the CPM leaders are deliberately causing problems. He went on to say that those who had formerly supported the CPM had increased slogans.
“During the CPIM’s term, they took a lot of money from the youngsters by promising them jobs through backdoors, and now that they’re going to other parts of the state, their old supporters are raising slogans against them,” Mr Nath said.
He also said that the CPM’s effort to instil fear will fail because people are aware of the party’s 25 years of misrule.
“We believe that a section of people from his party are trying to instigate the violence in the state. It is the BJP’s fear of Communists that led to increased violence after their failure in four states in the recent concluded elections,” Mr Sarkar said.
“The state leadership is encouraging the miscreants to carry out the attacks on the opposition party leaders,” he added.
According to him, the CPM leaders expressed concerns in March about the attack that prevented Deputy Opposition Leader him from visiting his own constituency. In response, the Chief Minister expressed dissatisfaction and promised that no MLAs will have any problems visiting his district.
