Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Saturday threw a direct challenge to the organizational capabilities of the Left parties and claimed that 2.5 years of BJP’s rigorous efforts in the state was enough to dislodge a political party that was in power for 25 years.
Raising serious doubts on the Left’s organizational merit, Deb said, “The left takes pride in their organizational mettle. They keep making tall claims but in reality, I have not found their organization that strong. The BJP in Tripura started working barely 2.5 years before the assembly elections of 2018 and defeated the Left which claims to have the strongest cadre-base in the state”.
Deb was addressing a gathering organized by Vivekananda Vichar Mancha (VVM) under the banner “Four Years of Difference”. VVM that initially started as an organization of employees’ welfare has gradually turned out to be an umbrella organization as major trade union bodies came to an understanding with it. Now, the organization has been working as a single platform having representation of all the anti-Left employees’ and workers’ bodies.
The Chief Minister, on the other hand, advised the Left to take lessons from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to sharpen their skills.
“We don’t count on booths only. We have people even below that level. In 2017, the BJP introduced the term Pristha Pramukh (Page-in-Charge), a dedicated Karyakarta of the party with a responsibility of 60 voters listed in one page of his locality. He directly reports to booths and a cluster of booths constitute a Shakti Kendra (Power Centre). As the 2023 polls are drawing near, we have already started working to appoint new Pristha Pramukhs”, said Deb.
The Chief Minister also slammed the Left for allegedly exploiting the working class in the form of donation collection and party works.
“They have a perennial habit of collecting donations. Today, we are all freed of that. Their leaders have turned politics into their family business and that particular culture no longer exists in Tripura. We work for people and politics is a form of service for BJP”, said Deb.
