Newly appointed Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Birajit Sinha arrived in Agartala from Delhi on Sunday. Amidst jubilation among his supporters, Tripura Pradesh Congress received major blows due to en masse desertion from the party, especially from the Youth Congress (YC).
Besides, AICC decision on formation of new TPCC under Sinha drew serious flak as two of the newly appointed Working Presidents either denied to be a part of the party or quit the party.
In its bid to woo back the indigenous people, AICC included Bibhu Devi, mother of TIPRA Motha Chairman Pradyut Kishore, as one of the five Working presidents of TPCC – however, Bibhu Devi blatantly refused to be re-associated with Congress.
If Bibhu Devi’s refusal to be a part of the TPCC is not enough, another newly appointed Working president of TPCC, Purnita Chakma, resigned from the party today.
Moreover, around 50 office bearers of Tripura Pradesh YC including Pujan Biswas, the State president of YC who recently resigned from the post deserted the party. Biswas, venting his frustration at the handling State organization by the AICC, said more en masse desertion is on the card.
Denial to be a part of the Party and mass desertion effectively demonstrated a huge communication gap between the leaders of the State-level organizations and AICC. The culture of imposing a decision by the top brass seems to be hitting hard already almost extinct Congress in State.
In a letter, which was purportedly written by Bibhu Devi to Pradyut Kishore, she said Bibhu Devi is not in politics for the last 12 years. She clearly wrote to her son that her name should not be used by the TPCC.
One of the seasoned party leaders, Purnita Chakma said, Congress organization in Tripura is in utter chaos for a long time. A sincere effort was initiated recently by the TPCC leaders to revive the organization, however, a sudden change of guard in the TPCC leadership will jeopardize everything. It is pity that instead of taking a pragmatic decision to revive the organization, the leadership continued its wrong policy.
“Frustrated at the prevailing affairs in the party, it was not possible for me to continue and I decided to quit. As of now, there is no plan to join any party – neither BJP nor TMC”, Chakma said.
Even as a section of party workers are jubilant, sources close to the party are anticipating exodus to continue in the coming days. In that case, Birajit Sinha will have to start from the scratch to be battle ready for upcoming Assembly polls.