Apart from targeting the Bengali voters the Trinamool Congress is also trying to win over the SC and STs of Tripura in the coming Agartala municipal elections and the State polls sources said adding the party has specific plans for the three different segments of the voters.
“The BJP has done nothing save spreading mutual hatred among communities … they have attacked the opposition … misled the youth and in the name of nationalism they have created communal disturbance … the people of this State particularly those from Agartala have understood their policy and so they are gradually tilting towards Mamata Banerjee and the TMC,” said party leader Rajib Banerjee.
Welcoming an Apex Court order directing the Tripura Government and the State Director General of Police to allow peaceful campaigning in the elections another TMC leader Shantanu Sen said “the order belongs to the people of Tripura who have been languishing under the BJP rule … there is no democratic right in the State … But if the people give us a chance then Tripura will see the same surge in their socio-economic life that have come in Bengal under the Mamata Banerjee regime.”
Ruling that every party has a right to peacefully campaign in the elections the Court has asked the State Government to ensure security of the contestants directing the Director General of Police and the Home Secretary to file a compliance report.
Rajib Banerjee said “in Tripura the Government is indifferent, the police a silent spectator and the democracy is
under threat … only the court can save democracy here.”
The order comes as a shot in the arm of the TMC which had been facing similar charges in Bengal leveled by the BJP.
On the TMC’s chances of winning the elections the party leaders said “Mamata Banerjee has shown in Bengal that she is a fighter who pushed out the powerful Left Front through years of struggle … she will do it in Tripura too and the people of this State know it well.
Earlier party Raja Sabha MP Sushmita Dev said that her party was targeting all section of the society “even the SC/ST voters are our voters…” She said “20 out of 60 seats are reserved for SC/ ST and those voters are equally important. Biplab Deb Government has done nothing for Tripura … they have only exploited the people and tortured the opposition … the people are determined to throw them out … and as the Left and the Congress are in a bad shape the people have decided to give Trinamool Congress a chance.”
Reacting to the statements coming from the TMC's side senior Tripura BJP leader Nabyendu Bhattacharya said that “the TMC has been complaining of violence which is peculiar to their own regime in Bengal … in Tripura they have no cadre which is why they are trying to get publicity through the media … but they will not be successful in this dirty game … The BJP welcomes them to fight democratically in this State.”