'Tripura govt scared of Trinamool'
KOLKATA: After Trinamool Congress (TMC) members were not allowed to hold the party's organisational meeting at a hotel there by the administration for not having sought the permission of the District Magistrate (DM), party's MP Derek O'Brien on Thursday said the Tripura government was scared of TMC and thus resorted to coercive measures.
The MP reiterated that nothing would prevent TMC from strengthening its organisation in the north-eastern state as the 'game has already started (Khela Suru Hoye Geche).
Meanwhile, TMC all-India general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is likely to visit Tripura on Monday. About four days back, 23 members of poll strategist Prashant Kishor's Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) — who had gone there to conduct a survey — were allegedly kept under house arrest for flouting the Disaster Management Act.
Commenting on the house arrest of the I–PAC members, O'Brien said: "They (I-PAC members) had gone to Tripura to conduct a survey professionally. They are not Trinamool workers."
Shortly before a meeting between O'Brien and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar — the TMC MPs who had arrived in Tripura on Thursday — local Trinamool leaders gathered at a hotel. A large contingent of police arrived at the spot and told them that no meeting could be held as the permission of the DM had not been sought.
The cops said in view of the Covid pandemic, meetings could not be conducted without the permission of the district administration.
Bengal Education and PWD ministers Bratya Basu and Moloy Ghatak and state INTTUC president Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay, who had reached Tripura on Wednesday, made futile attempts to pacify the cops.
"This is the old Gujarat model of putting pressure on the Opposition leaders. In Delhi, the Opposition MPs are not allowed to speak on important issues like phone tapping of Abhishek Banerjee before the 2021 Assembly election by using Pegasus spyware," O'Brien alleged.
Bratya Basu said, during his visit to Tripura, had come across many people who had been anxiously waiting for the Trinamool to come and save the state from the clutches of BJP. "Local people have seen Bam (Left), Ram (BJP) and if they want kam (work), they should vote for Trinamool Congress," he added.
"People are fed up with the BJP government and they want a change. BJP has failed to keep its promises made before the Assembly elections," Ghatak alleged.
Meanwhile, speculations are rife that Sudip Roy Barman, along with some BJP MLAs, is likely to join Trinamool Congress. Banerjee is likely to hold a meeting with Roy Barman on Friday. Though TMC leaders who went to Tripura from Kolkata did not comment on the issue, they said many local BJP leaders had been keeping in touch with senior party leaders.
