Manmohan, Sonia destroyed Congress in Tripura, alleges BJP candidate

Mr Shah, who is contesting this year on BJP ticket from a traditional Congress seat Bordowali in Agartala town told UNI here "The Congress high command turned soft towards CPI(M) and slowly gave up the will power. In such eventuality, the party's downfall is must."

He said it is not without good reason that he and five other Congress MLAs gave up party membership and first joined Trinamool Congress and then the BJP.

"As die hard opponents of the Left we always looked upwards towards the central leaders for support and encouragement in our fight against the communists. But there was hardly any support coming".

The most ridiculous situation was when in 2013 in order to ensure some working relationship with the CPI (M) leaders at the national level both the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi did not come to campaign against the CPI (M).

"It was an unbecoming act of any top leader, we fought and won on our own strength," he complained.

Mr Shah said at one point of time the six former Congress legislators reposed faith in the leadership of Mamata Banerjee because she was seen as a genuine alternative and a strong opponent of the communists. "But by 2017 Mamata Banerjee had changed her track. She reached out to CPI (M) during demonetisation and later during Presidential election to our surprise Trinamool Congress decided to vote along with CPI(M)," he said.

"Thus the unholy alliance of Congress, Trinamool and communists came about and this compelled us to explore other avenues," he said justifying joining BJP and finally contesting the ensuing polls on BJP ticket.

To a question on BJP's Hindutva slant, he said most of these notions about the saffron party prevail because of the communists campaign.

"The communists themselves don't believe in rights of the individuals. They don't believe in secularism. In China, Muslims going to Haj are denied Visa but in India they give certificate to others on secularism," Mr Shah said.

"Now I am associated with the BJP, I find nothing communal or Hindutva chauvinism about it," he said.

The former Congress leader said, "It is high time, this must stop and the Marxists ought to be exposed."

Dwelling at length on the politics of opportunism and unprincipled power play pursued by the CPI (M) in Tripura, he said today the communist cadres in the state have become synonymous with the Land Mafia Raj.

To a question he said tribals were long neglected by the communists regime in Tripura and the BJP after coming to power will take suitable measures to ensure their socio-economic development. "We may not approve the demand of division of Tripura but the issues of their backwardness and lack of development need to be addressed," he said.