Tripura Elections 2023: Former CM Manik Sarkar reacts strongly to PM Modi's statements made at Tripura election rallies

Former Tripura Chief Minister and opposition leader Manik Sarkar, in a harsh reaction to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statements at two election rallies in Tripura, said the PM gave speeches based on lies and tried to hide the BJP government's misrule in the state.

Sarkar, a CPI(M) politburo member, stated that a Prime Minister should not make false statements and should not mislead the people.

He claimed that when he was Chief Minister (1998-2018), he approached then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about electricity supply to Bangladesh and that many meetings were held during the Left Front government's rule in 2013-14, whereas Modi claimed that electricity supply to the neighbouring country started after the BJP government entered power in Tripura in 2018.

Sarkar stated that the decades-long insurgency was tamped down during the Left Front's rule, and Tripura was the first state in the country to withdraw the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) on May 27, 2015.

"Modi once called a meeting of Chief Ministers and asked me how the Left government tamed the insurgency in Tripura. On his request, I gave him a detailed report about the Left government's initiative to tame the militancy.

"Over 350 party members, supporters, Left leaders and workers, including a minister were killed by the militants in Tripura. When the entire country knows about the performance of the Left government to curb the militancy, Modi alleges that there was no peace in the Left regime," the former Chief Minister said.

Modi said there was no democracy in Tripura during the Left regime and if it is true how the BJP government came to power when the CPI(M)-led Left government was in power in 2018, Sarkar asked.

"After the BJP government came to power, a jungle raj has been started. There is some discipline in the jungle (forest) but there is no rule of law in Tripura now under the saffron party governance."

Referring to Modi's criticism against the Left-Congress seat adjustment deal, the CPI(M) leader said that the strategy was taken only to defeat the BJP and to restore democracy and rule of law in Tripura.

"A fear of defeat gripped the minds of Modi and that was reflected in his speeches. The BJP gave 299 commitments before the 2018 Assembly polls and he (PM) did not refer to the failure of BJP in fulfilling these pre-poll promises," said Sarkar.