Like Bengal, Trinamool will rout BJP in Tripura: Abhishek Banerjee

Agartala, Aug 2 Trinamool Congress will come to power in Tripura in 2023 Assembly polls as it is the only organisation capable of defeating the BJP, which has been proved in the recent Bengal polls, the partys national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee here said on Monday.

Banerjee said that after 25 years of miss governance by the Left parties, the BJP during its three-and-a-half years' rule in Tripura not only failed to deliver the goods, but also killed democracy in the peaceful state as the state government led by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb is controlled from Delhi.

Accompanied by a host of Trinamool leaders and ministers from West Bengal, Banerjee said that if Bengal can defeat the BJP, Tripura with Trinamool's help will certainly be able to do so in the Assembly polls scheduled in 2023.

"Home Minister Amit Shah became a daily passenger to Bengal during the elections. The BJP government used all the central agencies against Trinamool leaders. Even the Election Commission acted against our party.

"All the BJP leaders, central ministers and the Prime Minister campaigned in the recent polls but still the Trinamool increased its tally as compared to the previous polls (2016)," Banerjee said.

Stating that Trinamool's full-fledged Tripura state committee would be announced within the next 15 days, Banerjee said that he would come to Tripura three to four times a month while other party leaders would also visit the state frequently.

Booth-level committees would be formed in all the 3,324 Assembly booths in the eight districts of Tripura soon, he stated.

The Lok Sabha member said that even before Trinamool started its work in Tripura, the BJP became panicky and out of fear, 23 Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) members were detained by the state police who had come to Tripura just to study the situation in the BJP-ruled state.

"Our struggle to protect the people of Tripura and other organisational activities would be intensified regardless of the attacks we faced here. If BJP intimidates our workers, if they attack our people in Tripura, Trinamool will become more active and expand its base," he said.

Claiming that many BJP MLAs and ministers are maintaining contacts with the Trinamool and had even gone to Kolkata to meet the party leaders, Banerjee said that a large number of party leaders and workers from different political parties in Tripura would soon join his party.

"The BJP has unleashed a reign of terror as there is no existence of opposition parties in Tripura. Henceforth, the BJP's terror and violence against the people would be stopped as the Trinamool would be a big political force in the state with huge organisational capacities," the Trinamool leader said.

Banerjee also said that the BJP in Tripura did not allow the opposition parties to contest in all the local body polls since March 2018 and their candidates had won these polls without any contest.

After the alleged "house arrest" of 23 I-PAC members by the police in Agartala on July 25, seven senior Trinamool leaders, including Bratya Basu, Moloy Ghatak, Derek O'Brien, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Ritabrata Banerjee, have come to Tripura.

All these Trinamool leaders also accompanied Banerjee on Monday.

Trinamool sources said the I-PAC team came to Tripura last week to assess the political situation in the state and look at the potential support base for Trinamool before the 2023 Assembly elections.