People's Democracy

THE Left Front of Tripura has announced the candidature of Khagen Das as its nominee for the coming by-poll to the Tripura West parliamentary constituency. Das is currently a CPI(M) member in the Rajya Sabha. He is a member of the CPI(M) state secretariat.

The seat fell vacant with the demise of the CPI(M) MP, Samar Chowdhury, in September 2001. The by-election to the seat is slated to be held on February 21.

Announcing the decision, the Left Front voiced its profound faith in the everlasting fund of people’s political consciousness in the face of the hectic and heinous gang-up of almost the entire spectrum of anti-Left Front political parties with anti-national extremists in the state. The announcement was made on Thursday, January 10, at a press conference in the CPI(M) state headquarters, following a Left Front meeting that had endorsed the candidature of Khagen Das for the Lok Sabha seat.

Addressing the press conference, CPI(M) state secretary and Left Front convenor Baidyanath Majumdar said the anti-Left Front parties in the state have recently ganged up on the single agenda of dislodging the Left Front government, banking on their experience of the hijacking of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (ADC) in May 2000 by the IPFT, the political mask of the outlawed extremist organisation NLFT. It is clear that both the NLFT and IPFT do have certain invisible allies in the state.

Yet, Majumdar said, the people of Tripura cannot fail to see that the anti-Left Front parties, without the least commitment to the people, have only been seeking to fish in troubled waters. They are leaving no stone unturned to trigger trouble in the state, while the Left Front government has always been working its level best for the people’s welfare.

It is to be noted that the Congress, IPFT and TUJS have entered into an electoral alliance to field a common candidate in the coming Lok Sabha by-poll to the Tripura West constituency, with the Trinamul Congress and the BJP still sitting on the fence.

Replying to a question as to whether the coming parliamentary by-poll in Tripura will see a re-run of the usurpation of ADC at gun-point by the IPFT in the last ADC elections, CPI(M) state secretariat member and its organ Daily Desher Katha’s editor Gautam Das said the people’s mandate is clear from their vociferous protest against the unbridled corruption and misrule in the IPFT-led ADC over the past one year and a half. He said the anti-Left parties have exposed themselves by their unprincipled alliance with a party that is directly aided by extremists, especially in the post-September 11 scenario when even the staunchest opponents of the Left Front have been speaking out against terrorism.

Asked by a newsman to cite an instance of the IPFT leadership’s collusion with NLFT extremists, Gautam Das referred to the recent instance in which 63 tribal students of Agartala, both male and female, were taken to Bangladesh for training in terrorism. Among them, those who were caught by the police on their return to the state, confirmed that certain IPFT leaders including ADC frontline members were involved in sending them to Bangladesh. Besides, a certain lawyer, who was a Congress candidate in the last parliamentary polls and was defeated, secured the anticipatory bail for three IPFT members of the ADC following the arrest of the terrorist-trained students.

Das also stated in reply to a newsman’s query that the number of CPI(M) leaders and activists killed by extremists in Tripura since 1998 is about to reach the 1500 mark. The bulk of them were tribals and members of the Tripura Upajati Ganamukti Parishad (GMP). Also, the centre did not extend the requisite security assistance during the last ADC polls, and had earlier withdrawn a sizeable section of the already inadequate security forces from the state. Yet, Das said, the Left Front will request the Election Commission for security assistance to conduct a free and fair by-poll to the Tripura West parliamentary constituency, especially in the terrorist-affected areas.

CPI leader Prasanta Kapali, Forward Bloc’s Satish Saha and RSP leader Dipak Das were also present in the press conference and affirmed their hope that the people’s overwhelming support would lead to the Left Front’s victory in the coming by-poll. (INN)