After day long state committee meeting of opposition CPI(M) in presence of party’s general secretary Sitaram Yechury and senior politburo members Prakash Karat and Manik Sakar,  CPI(M) led Left Front on Sunday evening 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  state committee meeting of CPI(M)  and Left Front’s separate meetings, Front convener Narayan Kar said that former CPI(M) MLA Rajendra Reang  from Kanchanpur assembly constituency would be the Left parties’ nominee in the Tripura East Lok Sabha seat, reserved for the tribals.

Reang was elected for Tripura legislative for three consecutive terms in 2003, 2008 and in 2013.

Kar said that former CPI(M) MLA Ratan Das, who is also the Secretary of the party’s West District committee, will contest in the assembly by-polls from Ramnagar assembly seat (in West Tripura), where by-elections would be held on April 19 next.

The Assembly seat was lying vacant after the death of BJP MLA Surajit Datta on December 28, 2023.

The Left leader while addressing 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.

CPI(M) 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.

Chaudhury through his scathing gun over the leadership of Tipra-Motha over alleged betrayal politics with lakhs of tribal people in the state said that Tipra-Motha by dividing the anti-BJP votes in last Assembly elections secured the victory of BJP in the elections. But, after elections creating dramas in the name of ‘Greater Tipraland’, they had signed in an agreement with centre and Tripura government, which has also another poll gimmick to fool the innocent tribals. “Since inception, Tipra-Motha is playing with sentiments of tribals, but now the people of Tripura understand their betrayal and beneficial politics,” said Chaudhury and claimed people of the state are now ready to give them befitting reply along with their alliance partner BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.

He also alleged that Tipra-Motha is trying to create a division among tribal and non-tribal people of the state for their personal gain. Chaudhury said after joining Tripura government, Motha leaders still say their core agenda is separate state and asked what will be the stand of BJP over demand of separate state by their partner in government.

It may be recalled here that Congress on March 8 nominated its state party President Ashish Kumar Saha as candidate for the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat.

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, Kriti Singh Debbarma, a member of the erstwhile royal family and is the elder sister of Tipra-Motha  supremo and royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarma.

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.