TRIPURA

Left Front Announces Candidate List

12 New Faces, 5 Women in the Fray

                                                                                                         Rahul Sinha

THE election to the sixty membered Tripura legislative assembly will be held on February 14. The chief election commissioner announced the election schedule for the three north-eastern states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland on January 11. But the Tripura Left Front committee announced its list of candidates on 9th evening itself even before the formal announcement of  the election schedule by the ECI. In a crowded press conference at the CPI(M) Tripura state committee office, Tripura Left Front convener Khagen Das in the presence of leaders of the four constituent parties of the Front announced the LF’s list of candidate for 59 out of the 60 seats which will go to poll on 14th. Out of the 60 seats, CPI(M) will contest in 55 seats. CPI and RSP will contest in two seats each and the AIFB will contest in one seat. In the press conference, a list of 59 candidates was released leaving one seat for CPI in which the concerned party announced its candidate on January 13. Announcing the candidate list, Khagen Das appealed to the electorate of the state to ensure victory of all the 60 candidates of the LF to build a prosperous state and to maintain the atmosphere of peace, harmony and development. CPI(M) state secretary Bijan Dhar, state secretariat member Gautam Das, CPI leader Dinesh Saha, RSP state secretary Sudarshan Bhattacharya and AIFB state secretary Shyamal Roy were present in the press conference.

Out of the 49 MLAs of the Left Front in the current assembly, 42 are again in the fray. All the 12 ministers including chief minister Manik Sarkar will be contesting in the coming election also. Manik Sarkar will be contesting from 23 Dhanpur seat. Likewise finance minister Badal Chowdhury will contest from Hrishyamukh. TW minister Aghore Debbarma will contest from Asharambari seat. Power minister Manik Dey will contest from Majlishpur. ICAT minister Anil Sarkar will be in fray from Pratapgarh. Education minister Tapan Chakraborty will be in fray from Chandipur. Sports minister Shahid Chowdhury will be contesting from Bokshonagar. Industry minister Jitendra Chowdhury will contest from Manu. Social welfare minister Bijita Nath will be contesting from Bagbasa. Minister for prisons Manindra Reang (CPI) will contest from Santirbazar and science and technology minister Jaygobinda DebRay (RSP) will contest from Radhakishorepur. Assembly speaker Ramendra Debnath will contest from Jubarajnagar, deputy speaker Bhanulal Saha will contest from Bishalgarh, while government chief whip Samir Deb Sarkar will contest from Khowai constituency. There are twelve new faces in the candidate list. 

Khagen Das said the Left Front has not only implemented the promises made in the manifesto but had implemented a number of programmes for people’s welfare which were not there in the manifesto. “How the hilly areas, rural belts and the urban areas have developed, people themselves are witness to that. In 1978, the Congress had drawn a blank. Today the election is going to be held in a scenario when the people all over India are vocal against the anti people policies of the UPA-2 government. The centre has resolved to sell out our independence and sovereignty to imperialism and the MNCs. The people shall not tolerate this and it will be a repeat of the 1978 results for the Congress party,” he said.

Khagen Das said the extremists have killed more than 1150 people comprising of both tribal and non tribals. Both Congress and BJP had forged electoral alliance with the overground political outfit of the extremists to get their help during the elections.  This time the Congress party is seeking help from the extremists directly. The confessional statements of a surrendered extremist Dhanu Koloi have revealed that the Congress party is engaged in supplying money for the extremists camping in Bangladesh. He has also confessed that such a sum of rupees 25 lakhs was handed over to him at the MLA hostel number 1, allotted for the opposition MLAs in front of Debabrata Koloi, a leader of the ST department of Congress.

He said the Congress party had tried all sorts of tricks to delay the elections. Some of its leaders have openly said that elections will be held after imposition of article 356. The leader of opposition has said, he has managed the Election Commission and it will be a 1988 style of election. Khagen Das said we have met the EC and told them in detail how in 1988, Congress led by late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had murdered democracy in 1988 by imposing disturbed area act just a few days before the election; central para-military force was deployed in the state  without consulting the state government. The ECI was astonished to know all this. He also criticised the Congress party’s attempt to delay the election by lodging innumerable baseless complaints about irregularities in the voter list. He criticised the comment of Congress MLA Subal Bhowmik who has said that the ECI came to the state to enjoy picnic. We have never heard a leader of a national political party making such derogatory remarks about a constitutional body. In the bye-election to Nalchharr constituency, the EC had sent four observers, state police was not used, even the EVMs were brought from outside the sub-division. We were astonished but we never questioned any move of the ECI. Our only demand is that the election should be completely peaceful, free and fair, he said.

CPI(M) state secretary Bijan Dhar said , on January 20, the central election rally of LF will be held at Stable Ground. CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, chief minister Manik Sarkar and other leaders of the LF will address the meeting. CPI(M) state secretariat member Gautam Das said the election manifesto of the LF will be released soon.

List of Left Front candidates for Assembly Elections 2013