Opposition INDIA bloc supported CPI(M) candidate Rajendra Reang on Tuesday submitted his nomination paper for the Tripura East Lok Sabha seat, which would go to poll in the second phase of polling on April 26.

The main contest in the tribal reserve Tripura East Lok Sabha seat expected to be witnessed between Reang and BJP candidate and scion of Tripura's erstwhile royal dynasty, Kriti Singh Debbarma, who filed her candidatures on March 28, the first day of filling of nominations for the second phase of the parliamentary elections. The last date of filling of nomination in the parliamentary seat is April 4.

 After a big rally, attended by senior leaders of CPI(M), Congress and other parties, Reang, a former CPI(M) MLA, submitted his nomination papers to Dhalai District Magistrate Saju Vaheed A.

 Addressing the gathering in Dhalai District headquarters Ambassa, Left Front convener Narayan Kar said that Reang’s father Sarbajoy Reang was brutally killed by the NLFT (National Liberation Front of Tripura) militants in 2001 and his family sacrificed a lot for the welfare of the tribals.

“Reang is a member of the martyr family. He himself was also tortured by the militants. For the sake of the democracy and development of Tripura, people would vote for the CPI-M candidate,” Kar said.

CPI-M Tripura state secretary and state’s opposition leader Jitendra Choudhury said that the Left parties and the Congress are fighting together against the BJP to save the democracy, constitution, unity and integrity of the country.

“Despite the BJP had assured to provide two crore jobs every year to the unemployed youths, they utterly failed to keep their promise,” he said, claiming that the “saffron party is the most corrupt party in the world”.    

The CPI(M) candidate Reang expressing his disappointment over the ‘BJP government's failure to address the basic needs of the people, specially those belonging to tribals communities,’ asserted that the growing support for the INDIA bloc and the people in the coming parliamentary elections would oust the authoritarian regime led by the BJP at the center.

Congress MLA and party’s working committee member Sudip Roy Barman said that the country is in danger now and the BJP is trying to win the Lok Sabha elections by putting the opposition party leaders in jail and freezing Congress bank accounts.

“BJP leaders only highlight their fake development agenda and make people foolish. It is now certain that the INDIA bloc would come to power at the center with a thumping majority,” asserted Roy Barman, who was a former minister of the BJP government headed by former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb.

Deb is the BJP nominee for the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat, where Congress President Ashish Kumar Saha is contesting as the consensus candidate of the opposition INDIA bloc, comprising eight parties of the state.

Altogether nine candidates submitted their nominations from the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat, which would go to polls in the first phase on April 19.