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Agartala, August 16: Infamous for internal squabbling within the party lines, the Congress party in Tripura is again in the face of an ugly power tussle between the loyalists of veteran Congress leader Birajit Sinha and newly appointed PCC chief Asish Saha.
Even as both the groups are avoiding any public slugfest for now, the internal bickering has reached to an unprecedented level.
Amidst growing influence of the new PCC chief Asish Saha in the organization, his predecessor and MLA Birajit Sinha is being found rubbing shoulders with the saffron party leaders and ministers.
Sources in the party said that Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman and his close confidante Asish Kumar Saha are the new strongmen in the Congress. On the other hand, MLA Gopal Roy and Birajit Sinha are losing their grip in the party.
“Both of them deserve respect. Not only because they got elected to the state assembly but also for their unadulterated loyalty to the party. When others keep jumping ships for plum posts and positions, both of them stayed with the Congress even in the most critical times”, said a party source.
Congress party's decision of not contesting the by-elections in two assembly constituencies slated on September 05 is also a major reason of dissent within the party. A large section of the party leaders expected that the Congress and the CPIM would fight one seat each in the by elections. In the 2023 assembly elections as well the Congress had only a share of 13 seats to contest while CPIM fielded candidates in the dominant 46 seats.
A Congress leader who wished to remain anonymous said that the AICC ignored all the dissenting voices to keep the party president happy.
“The AICC in-charge for Tripura Dr Ajoy Kumar was a frequent traveler to Tripura during the elections. He was one of the most vocal voices against the BJP and its hooliganism. But, after elections, he has totally forgotten the state. He only keeps contact with the state president. On several occasions, the party president does not even give credit to the foot soldiers who are keeping Congress relevant through their programs and pointing out shortcoming of the government on valid points”, a leader has added.
Some sources have also informed this newspaper that after the 2023 elections, a big share of the party’s supporters shifted their loyalty to the BJP just because they are snubbed or sidelined politically by new dispensation.
Exit of senior Congress leader Prasanta Bhattacharjee is one of the latest examples of the growing feud.
When contacted for a reaction, Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee President Asish Kumar Saha also expressed his disappointment over the CPIM's "hasty decision" of announcing candidates.
He said, "The CPIM should have waited for our response before announcing the candidates. We have communicated all our grievances to the AICC and are waiting for the party high command's decision". Saha also added that he had attended a meeting of the opposition parties where leaders of TIPRA and CPIM were present. "It was like a preliminary meeting to decide the roadmap for the elections. There was no conclusive talks on the seat sharing or contesting elections", Saha told this reporter.