In view of ongoing tussle over former Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief Birajit Sinha sponsored Bandh on September 8, AICC president Sonia Gandhi had to intervene and instructed Sinha to call off the strike.
But Congress being the Congress – nothing seems to work in unambiguous manner – not even party president’s instructions. So here we find entry of AICC general Secretary Luizinho Faleiro with a different letter to warring TPCC leaders.
Luizinho Faleiro in a letter to the TPCC said, the Bandh has been ‘postponed’ and a ‘fresh date’ will be later announced.
According to a senior Congress leader who spoke to Sonia Gandhi over the issue claimed the AICC president was specific and unambiguous in her decision and that the bandh would be ‘called off’.
“She also wrote a letter addressing Tripura-in-charge Luizinho Faleiro communicating him to ask Sinha to call off the bandh”, the Senior Congress leader claimed.
But a letter from Faleiro sent to Bhupen Kumar Borah ( Tripura In charge) Pijush Biswas, TPCC president, Birajit Sinha and other heads of frontal organizations, kept a grey area wide for further confusion—it said while the bandh ( called by Sinha) was ‘postponed’ a fresh date in consultation with TPCC and senior leaders would be announced by Borah when he would visit the state .
This letter might have succeeded to sweep the ongoing squabble and tussle between Biswas and Sinha under the carpet for a while, but in true sense it did not at all end the story in right earnest. The issue was kept alive, and definitely simmering, in the backburner.
Sinha , despite being denied permission from the TPCC remained intransigent on his decision to go ahead with the bandh- in protest against attacks on him and other Congress workers in recent time allegedly by the BJP supporters. The strike claimed to be called by 11 frontal organizations of the Congress party was, however, not supported by any of the organization chiefs of the party.
Sources said, Sinha had tried his level best to convince AICC harping on Faleiro, but media reports and PCC president Pijush Biswas’s own tough stand on the strike made the party high command think twice.
According to reports, Luizinho Faleiro, in the beginning asked Birajit to “go ahead” with his strike, but as the TPCC president contacted him and apprised him of the ground situation, Faleiro put the onus on AICC to take a final call. The AICC president learnt to have asked Faleiro to meet the challenges the PCC was facing and the visible divide of two groups that emerged centering the bandh call. The AICC chief also learnt to have talked with the leaders over phone and asked to reconcile as the party was not in the shape to tolerate any further debacles.
