AGARTALA: Veteran CPI-M leader and former chief minister of Tripura – Manik Sarkar – has called for “unity against the BJP”.

This clarion call from the veteran CPI-M leader comes ahead of the Tripura assembly election slated to be held next year.

Manik Sarkar has accused the ruling BJP in Tripura of setting a wrong precedence of “looting votes” during the by-polls held recently in the state.

Tripura CPI-M Manik Sarkar said: “The BJP won votes by resorting to terror tactics and throttling the voice of democracy.”

“The BJP is slaughtering democracy in Tripura,” the former Tripura chief minister added.

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He said that a major section of people in Tripura exercised their franchise defying the “terror tactics applied by the BJP”.

“When BJP realized that people of Tripura are getting detached from the government and the party, they changed the chief minister,” Manik Sarkar said.

He further accused Tripura chief minister Manik Saha of winning the by-polls from Town Bordowali constituency by “massive poll rigging”.

“If BJP retains power in Tripura, the state will be ruined and its economy and culture would not be able to fight back,” Sarkar said.