Sensing A Rout, CPI(M) Cries Foul In Tripura

Knowing that its candidate for the by-polls to the Charilam reserved (for tribals) Assembly seat slated for Monday (March 12) could lose even his security deposit, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) tried to save face by withdrawing its candidate alleging “large-scale violence”.

The by-polls have been necessitated by the death of the earlier CPI(M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma due to illness.

The CPI(M) candidate is pitted against Tripura’s new deputy chief minister Jishnu Debbarma, who is expected to win by a huge margin.

After being routed in the Assembly elections and bagging just 16 seats, the CPI(M) knew that it would face another ignominious defeat at Charilam and, hence, tried to make a virtue out of the imminent embarrassment.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, who is now in Tripura, announced the withdrawal of his party’s candidate Palash Debbarma and alleged that Palash had been prevented from campaigning in the constituency by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT).

The CPI(M) had requested the Election Commission to postpone the polls, but the request was turned down. BJP prabhari for Tripura Sunil Deodhar rubbished Yechury’s allegations and said that since the CPI(M) knows very well it will lose in Chaliram, it is levelling baseless allegations. Yechury is in Tripura to “collect evidence” of the alleged violence his party cadres, who have spread terror for so long, are facing now.