Tripura: Biplab Deb appeals CPIM’s Manik Sarkar to vote for BJP

Agartala: BJP candidate from West Tripura parliamentary constituency and former CM Biplab Kumar Deb on Friday made an ardent appeal to his predecessor in the top office and CPIM politburo member Manik Sarkar, to cast his vote in favour of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party instead of arch-rival turned ally Congress.
According to Deb, Sarkar had distanced himself from the party activities soon after the CPIM and Congress leaders allied with each other for political gains.
“Is this the reason why you have served the party for so long?” Deb asked. He said real communists who played an instrumental role in building the communist movement in Tripura that eventually overthrew the Congress from the helm of affairs would never vote for the BJP.
“You have voted for the CPIM for such a long time. You have been the Chief Minister of the state for four consecutive terms. You are a leader who is admired by people cutting across political lines. If you now cast your vote for a symbol of a hand, you are making a gross mistake. Lotus is the only symbol that you are left with,” Deb told an election rally at Belonia in South Tripura district.
Prolonged political rivalry between CPIM and Congress seems to have become the main flashpoint for the Lok Sabha elections campaign of the BJP. Almost all the senior party leaders during the election campaign raised the topic to appeal to the loyal vote bank of CPIM and Congress who had faced the brunt of political violence.
According to Deb, hundreds of CPIM and Congress supporters lost their lives in bloodletting political violence between the cadres of both parties.
Pointing out toward the memorial structures constructed by CPIM and Congress parties to pay homage to the slain leaders, Deb said, “What answers do they (CPIM and Congress leaders) have for the families that lost loved ones? The leaders who are rubbing their shoulders on public platforms must come out clean and answer the queries slapped by those bereaved families. They should do penance following all the rituals, including tonsuring heads if it calls for.”

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