Agartala: The Tripura Congress has been left in a state of fix as the party state leadership has received mixed feedback pertaining to the pre-poll alliance with CPIM from the ground-level workers.
“District and Block-level committees of the Congress party were asked to express their views on the poll debacle but the ground-level feedback has only raised the confusion for us. A substantial number of Congress leaders, based in different areas of the state, have univocally held the alliance responsible for the party’s poor performance in their areas,” a senior Congress leader told EastMojo requesting anonymity.
He said, “They even claimed that loyal voters of Congress did not vote for the party in the last elections. But, a significant number of leaders are of the view that Congress could carry out a momentous campaign and barely failed to cross the majority mark in many seats because of the help of the alliance partner in the polls.”
According to party insiders, Congress had been dealing with a ”conflict of interest” within the state leadership for the party’s lesser share of seats in the deal with CPIM. It took more than a month to resolve the differences and set things in order. Even after the results were declared, several Congress leaders were very unhappy as the party could only win three seats out of the 13 it contested.
A member of the Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee said, “The party is now divided on the poll results. Some leaders believe that Congress would have diminished to nothing had the seat-sharing pact not been stitched, while some people are still blaming the AICC for accepting the smaller role despite being a national party. One of the cardinal principles of the alliance was not just to defeat the BJP but to send a loud message of opposition unity across the country. Unfortunately, the experiment failed.”
Things continued to turn unfavorable even after the results were declared as TIPRA Motha emerged as the main opposition party in the state assembly. Despite the fact that Congress and CPIM have bagged higher numbers of votes, their role appears to be less important than that of TIPRA Motha.
On being asked whether the Left and Congress will carry forward their partnership in the Lok Sabha polls, ex-MLA and senior Congress leader Asish Kumar Saha said the party did not jump to any conclusion yet as the polls are scheduled next year.
“A meeting was convened on May 19 last but it ended before we could reach any logical conclusion. Most of the leaders who had been traveling to Delhi for organisational purposes, including heavyweight MLA Sudip Roy Barman and Congress chief Birajit Sinha, have returned to the state. In all likelihood, a meeting will be conducted in the first week of June to discuss the election results. Party top leaders are also expected to visit Tripura in later months,” said Saha.
According to Saha, Congress’s win in Karnataka assembly polls has breathed new life into the organization. “Many people who were disheartened enough to leave politics after the Tripura poll debacle have revived their contact with the party. The slate of elections in the current year is long and the party’s high command is confident of good results. These results will boost the morale of Congress workers ahead of the Lok Sabha elections,” Saha told EastMojo.
On being contacted, senior CPIM leader and member of the party state committee Pabitra Kar said, “The Congress and CPIM have been working cohesively after the elections. In many violence-affected areas, joint delegation of the parties is paying visits. Even we have a shared floor strategy in the state assembly. It is not that the alliance was just a matter of polls; ideologically, we have been speaking in the same tone and tenor.”
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On the Lok Sabha polls, Kar said, “The Lok Sabha elections are still far. None of the parties have started talks on the elections because now the priorities are different. When polls near, we shall definitely discuss these matters.”
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