Agartala, October 22, 2019: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which controls the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), here on Tuesday accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to “grab the autonomous body through backdoor”.
The accusation comes after two elected TTAADC members — Patiram Tripura and Jaikishore Jamatia — met the Governor on Monday and claimed of the 28 elected members, 15 members belonging to CPI-M led Left Front had moved a no-confidence motion against the executive council headed by Radha Charan Debbarma.
Patiram Tripura is a senior CPI-M leader and Jaikishore Jamatia an expelled leader of the Left party.
The BJP, however, denied the charges. “The CPI-M’s organizational base in the rural and tribal areas has been wrecked. If the Left members are ideologically strong, how they could be lured by the BJP,” BJP spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharjee said.
Debbarma said the BJP had been trying to lure the CPI-M’s TTAADC members to capture the council.
“Before the 2018 Assembly polls, the BJP had made 299 promises, but could not implement a single promise. It’s a reign of terror in the state. Lawlessness has been prevailing in Tripura since the BJP came to power in March 2018,” he said.
Terming the local rural and urban bodies polls as farcical, he said, the BJP was trying to capture the elected bodies like TTAADC. “To destabilize the constitutional body, the BJP-led state government was not providing funds to implement development works as well as welfare measures,” Debbarma said.
Debbarma was addressing the media after the TTAADC members had a meeting with top CPI-M leaders, led by state party Secretary Gautam Das.
The TTAADC holds sway over two-thirds of Tripura’s 10,491 sq km area, home to over 12,16,000 people, 90 per cent of whom are tribals. The TTAADC was first constituted in January 1982 under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution. (IANS)
