Khayerpur/Majlishpur: Ever since the seat sharing arrangement between the two parties for the 16 February Tripura assembly elections was announced last month, the Congress and the Left Front have maintained that a common enemy (the Bharatiya Janata Party) has brought the two traditional political rivals together in the state. There have been joint rallies and joint press conferences, even though senior leaders — such as former Chief Minister and CPI(M) politburo member, Manik Sarkar — stopped short of calling the tie-up an alliance.
Congress state president Birajit Sinha described the tie-up as an understanding between arch rivals.
On the ground too there are faultlines and more importantly, “Lakshman Rekhas” that cannot be crossed by either party.
”Old Congress families cannot vote for the Left Front. There has been too much blood. My family has seen deaths and destruction at the hands of the Left Front. How can families like mine get over that? The reality of BJP is that they have worked only for the past ten months or so since the new Chief Minister came in (Manik Saha replaced Biplab Deb as Tripura CM in May last year),” alleged Animesh Paul, a grocery store owner in Banamalipur constituency, where Congress candidate Gopal Roy is pitted against BJP state president Rajib Bhattacharjee.
The angst is not limited to the lower rungs of party hierarchy.
Trinamool Congress state president Pijush Kanti Biswas joined the party only in December 2022. He is a former president of Congress. “I quit Congress some time back and that is because rumblings had already started about an alliance with the Left Front. I could not have dealt with that. Initially I thought I would quit politics, but here I am,” he said. Biswas had quit the Congress in 2021.
Waiting for passengers in front of the Kharchi temple in Khayerpur constituency, Ajoy De, an auto rickshaw driver, turned his face away when asked about elections.
“I have nothing to do with politics. I have quit. It is too dirty.” On being prodded further he claimed, “I was a Congress worker for years. We have been beaten up and persecuted through the 30 years of Left rule. How can I now go back and work together with those very people?” In Khayerpur, CPI(M) candidate Pabitra Kar is facing BJP leader and state Assembly Speaker, Ratan Chakrabarty.
De’s words are echoed by many traditional Congress supporters.
Ratneswar Rakshit used to hold a government job, but does not get pension because of a pending court case, he claimed. He now works at a plastic shop in Chadrapur for a meagre Rs 4,000 per month to make ends meet.
“My job was given by the Congress. And now BJP has given me a stipend. The Left never gave me anything. I am a card holding member of the Congress party. But this time I will vote for the BJP, because a vote for Congress here is effectively a vote for the Left Front,” he said.
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‘Arch rivals have come together’
Talking about the tie-up with the Left, Congress state president Birajit Sinha said “two arch rivals have come together in the greater interest of the state, to save democracy”.
He added: “The Congress party has not seen power in this state for 30 years. Our workers understand that. You will only see a minuscule fraction of workers who are critical of the alliance. There were misgivings, but they have now been overcome. This sense that workers are unhappy is a misinformation campaign by the BJP.”
Sinha is fighting the elections from Kailasahar. It was while campaigning here that the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Tripura in-charge brought up the name of CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury as the CM face of the alliance.
Some Left leaders and supporters also claimed that the perception of worker disgruntlement was a BJP propaganda. “People are unhappy and they know who is responsible for that. Past rivalries will not matter,” said a Left sympathiser, who teaches at Ramthakur College, on condition of anonymity.
In an interesting twist, the campaign song being used by the Left and the Congress against the BJP, bears a stark resemblance to one the BJP itself had used against the Trinamool Congress in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections. Strains of “Ei BJP r na, Ei jumla are na (This BJP no more, no more only words)” blare from campaign vehicles. In West Bengal, the word Trinamool had been used instead of BJP, and the person who originally sang the song, former BJP MP Babul Supriyo, joined the Trinamool soon after.
Addressing a roadside meeting in Town Bardowali, where he is fighting sitting Chief Minister Manik Saha, Congress leader Ashish Saha reminded the crowd Thursday that no clear reply has been forthcoming on the question of why the chief minister was changed less than a year before the elections.
“We have seen violence and political clashes in the past, but what is happening now is personal. It is not just Opposition parties which are being attacked, doctors, engineers, businessmen nobody is spared. The entire government setup is being used for party purposes,” he alleged.
Later, speaking to ThePrint, he claimed it was the current atmosphere of violence that had made people and party workers forget past atrocities.
“People have forgotten what happened in the past, the old rivalries. People are scared, they understand that ideologies do not matter any more. What matters is the end of the BJP misrule,” he claimed.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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