• Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura 

Agartala, June 17, 2022 : Terming the Indian National Congress nominated candidate Sudip Roy Barman as a ‘traitor’, Agartala Municipal Corporation’s Mayor Dipak Majumder on Thursday said that the electorates will teach him a good lesson in the upcoming by-election scheduled on June 23 next.

AMC Mayor and Wakf Board chairman Shah Alam along with other local leaders of the ruling party was campaigning for BJP nominated candidate Dr Ashok Sinha at Mollahpara area in the suburbs of Agartala city. Dr Sinha is contesting from 6-Agartala assembly constituency under West Tripura district in the ensuing by-election and his opponents are Roy Barman of INC, Panna Deb of TMC and Krishna Majumder of CPIM.

Explaining the reason for designating Roy Barman as a ‘traitor’ while speaking with reporters here in Agartala city on Friday morning, Majumder said that the people and electorates of 6-Agartala assembly constituency always voted him to become an elected MLA, but the troubles faced by the residents are not addressed till date.

He said “No developmental work for welfare of common people was initiated during the long 25 years of the Leftist regime in Tripura. Rather the Congress nominated candidate Roy Barman, who was earlier in BJP had done no work for the welfare of the residents. Rather, the residents blessed this candidate every time and Roy Barman became the elected representative. But this representative didn’t utter a single word against the terror-like activities of the previous CPIM-led Left Front government. For his own benefits, he kept on changing political parties.”

Majumder also termed the Roy Barman’s claim of forming Congress government in 2023 as completely baseless and people are in favour of BJP-led government. He said “We were also once in Congress along with him too, even many ministers and MLAs of the present government were in Congress party. When Congress was government at the centre, we failed to win more than 10 seats. Now, the central government is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Similarly in Tripura, BJP is in the government, elected local bodies of panchayat, urban local bodies are ruling while there are 10 MDC in ADC too, etc. How can two MLAs form a government? When we all were in Congress, the government could not be formed because the grand national party was fulfilling the role of as an agent of CPIM”, he also added.

AMC Mayor asserted that this exercising of votes by the electorates of 6-Agartala seat will deliver two messages- one is the ongoing developmental visionary achievements of the state government and second is traitors will be taught a lesson as they had sold their votes to another party for their own benefits.

Speaking further about BJP candidate Dr Sinha and electorates of Muslim community, he said “During our campaigning, we are getting huge response as he is a renowned doctor and well-known face. Dr. Sinha is known as the defendant against injustice. The electorates and people of this area are quite happy as he had been nominated as the candidate in this by-election. There are rumours mongering that the people of the minority community in Tripura are not supporting BJP. But it is an absolutely baseless allegation. The response is significant and the complete opposite of rumours mongered. Their courtesy towards BJP and its nominated candidates is highly remarkable.”