Ahead of February, 2018 Assembly polls in Tripura, the state is heading for a political turmoil after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded President’s rule, alleging ‘deterioration of law and order situation’. Reacting immediately, the state’s ruling CPI-M and Congress ridiculed the demand.
The BJP said it would launch statewide agitations from Friday in support of their demand. BJP activists also surrounded 56 of Tripura’s 76 police stations on Tuesday.
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Inspector General of Police KV Sreejesh said BJP’s ‘thana gherao’ programme was peaceful. “We arrested a large number of protesters. However, they will be released,” Sreejesh informed the media.
Earlier, a BJP delegation led by party’s tribal leader Jishnu Debbarma met Governor Tathagata Roy and submitted a four-page memorandum.
“If the CPI-M-led Left Front remain in power, there would be more killings before the February, 2018 Assembly polls. Already the law and order situation has deteriorated to a large extent,” Debbarma told the media.
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“Besides political violence, there have been many suspicious deaths of general public including two journalists in the recent past. Even the role of the state police is not beyond doubt,” said the BJP memorandum, a copy of which was distributed to the media.
Meanwhile, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state secretary Bijan Dhar termed the BJP’s demand as ‘nasty, undemocratic and unfounded.
“Such demand shows BJP’s frustration and they get a sense that they would suffer a great jolt in the next Assembly elections in the state,” said Dhar.
Another CPI-M central committee member Gautam Das said that BJP lost the elections even before the polls and that is why they are raising such demand.
The Congress also rejected BJP’s demand, terming it an ‘evil design’ and illogical.
“To come to power through undemocratic means, the BJP earlier demanded central intervention and now demanding for President’s rule in Tripura only to defer the assembly elections,” state Congress vice president Tapas Dey told the media.
Meanwhile, BJP was also quick to react with a reminder that the CPI-M came to power in the power after President’s rule was imposed during Congress regime.