The opposition CPM and Congress seem to be inching towards an electoral alliance before the 2023 assembly election.
Though till now there were no specific talks about the opposition alliance a la West Bengal, leaders of the both parties time and again- particularly after the recently held by polls- missed no opportunity to throw up a clear hint that they were in favour of a joint platform to oust the BJP from power in Tripura. The joint forum idea appeared a practical solution as none of the oppositions was in a position to put up a decisive battle on its own singular capacity to rout the BJP from power—with opposition votes being divided into several parts.
The idea of the formal electoral alliance was first floated by Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman who was believed to have won the by polls from 6 Agartala constituency with the help of the Marxists. There was no official or formal alliance but it became clear after results were out that the CPM put its weight behind the Congress candidate Roy Barman at the cost of their own candidate Krishna Majumdar. Similar was was experience in 8 Bordowali where Left Front candidate Raghunath Sarkar from Forward Bloc was sacrificed by the CPM for Congress candidate Asish Saha.
However, soon after the victory Roy Barman came out in open and mooted the idea of electoral alliance with CPM against the ruling BJP.
In response within days CPM state unit secretary Jitendra Choudhury also maintained that to unseat ‘fascist BJP’ opposition parties needed to come together and fight it out decisively.
Politburo member and leader of the Opposition Manik Sarkar too made similar statements and said that he was not opposed to the idea of joining hands with other opposition parties to defeat the BJP.
Congress on the other hand already made a step forward to pull TIPRA Motha into the proposed alliance as it did not field any candidate in 46 Surma constituency in the by polls and supported TIPRA Motha candidate. CPM , so far, made no comment in regards to the TIPRA Motha’s joining the Congress-Left Front alliance as it had to be careful about its own tribal base in the hilly region.
But, on Wednesday former minister Pabitra Kar , one more CPM heavyweight after Sarkar and Choudhury , openly supported a united political platform against the BJP . Kar flanked by former MP Matilal Sarkar and GMP leader Radhacharan Debbarma was addressing the media as All Kisan Sabha leader
His statement came in the wake of attacks on Congress leaders Asish Saha and Szarita Laitphlang allegedly by BJP activists.
“In this current situation where almost all the opposition parties are being targeted and the democracy are being throttled, there is a need for all the democratic parties to get united against the BJP,” he said in a press conference as he condemned the assault.
“Even the leaders from outside the state are also not spared in the hands of BJP hooligans”, he pointed out.
Taking reference to Sri Lanka and the UK, Kar said, “People of this state and India as a whole like that of Sri Lanka and British need to be united to rescue the democracy which was murdered during the last eight years of the BJP government.”
If all these statements were of any indication than it is quite likely that within next few months some electoral alliance to float a united opposition parties would materialize against the BJP. And in that case BJP would undoubtedly face a tough time since it would be virtually left alone since its partner IPFT had already become a reduced force with virtually managing its existence only.
