Agartala, April 1 (IANS): Former Chief Minister and BJP candidate for the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat, Biplab Kumar Deb on Monday slammed Congress leaders claiming that due to them (Congress) the Communists were in power in the state for 35 years.
Deb, while addressing an election rally at Nalchar in Sepahijala district, said that due to Congress, the Left Front led by CPI-M first came to power in 1978 and remained in power for the next 10 years.
"Former Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Samir Ranjan Barman who led the Congress-TUJS (Tripura Upajati Juba Samity) coalition government for one year between 1992 and 1993, helped the CPI-M once again to return to power and remained at the helm of affairs for 25 years (1993 to 2018)," the BJP leader said.
The Left stayed in power for 25 consecutive years till 2018, when the BJP came to power thrashing the four-party Left Front.
Deb also criticised Samir Ranjan Barman's son Sudip Roy Barman, currently a Congress MLA.
He said the Congress headed by the father-son duo aligned with the CPI-M and freely facilitated the Left parties to remain in power. The BJP leader also criticised the Congress for forging an alliance with the Left to jointly contest the parliamentary polls.
Deb also criticised the CPI-M for changing its stance about the Tipra Motha Party (TMP). He said that the CPI-M praised the TMP as long as it kept doors open for discussion but after the tribal party joined the BJP government last month, the Left leaders started playing dirty politics by blaming party supremo Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barma and his family.
The former Chief Minister said that the CPI-M leaders who branded BJP's candidate for Tripura East Lok Sabha seat Kriti Singh Debbarma as an "outsider", referring to her marriage in Chhattisgarh, have been fixated themselves with their party and “ideology which are brought from China”.
Even after staying in power for 35 years, the Left parties "could not develop people's living standards" by upgrading their socio-economic conditions, he said adding that their motive is "to develop their party and party offices".