I-PAC team 'detention': TMC leaders to visit Tripura today

KOLKATA: A team of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders will visit Tripura on Wednesday to conduct an on the spot survey after a team of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) of Prashant Kishor had been allegedly kept under 'house arrest' at a hotel there.

Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee has expressed concern over the issue while the party's all-India general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had tweeted on Monday condemning the action of the Tripura government. He said the BJP was doing this as it had lost ground in Tripura.

Bratya Basu, state Education minister, along with state PWD and Law minister Moloy Ghatak and state INTTUC president Ritrabrata Bandyopadhyay, will go to Tripura. The team will conduct an on the spot inquiry and talk to the I-PAC members and later submit a report to the party.

The police had raided the hotel on Sunday night where the I-PAC team comprising 23 members had put up and allegedly prevented them from going out of the hotel. The police said they had flouted the Covid pandemic norms. The team members had gone there to conduct a survey for Trinamool Congress.

The popularity of TMC is fast increasing in Tripura after Mamata Banerjee's triumphant victory over the BJP in the recent state Assembly elections. The people of Tripura, who had ousted CPI(M) in the hope that BJP would do better, are disillusioned with the party as it has failed to keep its promises.

It may be mentioned that the state administration had arrested 82 TMC supporters on July 21 after they made attempts to listen to Banerjee's speech on Martyrs' Day.

Ashis Lal Singha, state Trinamool president, said the I-PAC team had not been allowed to go out of the hotel on Tuesday and indirectly the administration had told them that they should leave the state at the earliest.