It was May 1989. With Congress-TUJS government in power, Manik Sarkar and several other CPIM top leaders were trapped inside the party Office at Battala in Agartala which was surrounded by angry Congress supporters who were planning to set afire the party office and burn the leaders alive.

The horrific and gruesome incident was somehow averted and all the CPIM leaders and the party office were saved – but the violent expression of aggression left a permanent scar on the minds of the communists and common people.

The memories of the hostile relationship between Congress and CPIM, once again, resurfaced after the seat-sharing understanding between the two parties was inked ahead of the Assembly polls.

While simmering resentment among sections of supporters of both parties were reported, one of the leaders who was present in the May 1989 incident, Manik Sarkar, made a sterling reference to the violent past and fierce enmity between the two parties at a rally at Dhanpur Constituency from where Sarkar contested on earlier polls but this time preferred to stay away.

Addressing a gathering in support of his replacement at Dhanpur constituency, Kaushik Chanda at the Kanthalia area recently, Manik Sarkar said, “Kaushik Chanda’s father was killed during the Congress-TUJS regime. It was a political murder and Kaushik was a little boy at that time. Those who murdered Kaushik’s father assumed that killing that person would eliminate communists from Dhanpur – but that did not happen and today, Kaushik has emerged as the pole bearer for CPIM at Dhanpur”.

After referring to the horror of the Congress-TUJS regime, Manik Sarkar said, there is no alliance between Congress and CPM. To oust BJP from power, only seat sharing was done.

Talking about violence during the last 5 years, Sarkar said, “Kaushik was attacked 17 times in the last 58 months. In some cases, goons tried to kill him, but failed”.

“At least Manik Sarkar recalled the brutal killings during the Cong-TUJS alliance, no other CPIM leaders are talking about the sacrifice of the Party activists during the Jot period. All have forgotten the sacrifice for power”, commented a veteran CPIM activist of Kanthalia.