Congress abstains from voting in Rajya Sabha polls in Tripura

In the Rajya Sabha election, the CPI (M) fielded former MLA Sudhan Das against the BJP's Rajib Bhattacharjee, who is the party’s state unit president. The Congress and CPI(M) had fought the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections together.

Agartala: The Congress on Tuesday abstained from voting in the election to Tripura's lone Rajya Sabha seat in which the ruling BJP and opposition CPI(M) fielded candidates.

The Congress and CPI(M) had fought the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections together.

“We have not boycotted the Rajya Sabha elections. The party decided to abstain from voting in protest against the recent farcical Panchayat elections which is a threat to democracy,” senior Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman told the reporters.

The BJP secured victory unopposed in 71 per cent of the seats in the three-tier Panchayat polls in Tripura. The opposition parties alleged that they could not field candidates in those 71 per cent of seats because of the terror tactics of the ruling party.

In the Rajya Sabha election, the CPI (M) fielded former MLA Sudhan Das against the BJP's Rajib Bhattacharjee, who is the party’s state unit president.

“The CPI(M) has not consulted us before selecting or fielding a candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections. They could have boycotted the elections to protest the large-scale terror during the three-tier Panchayat elections. One candidate of the CPI(M) was murdered in Belonia during the polls,” Roy Barman said.

He said the Congress can join the CPI(M) in protests against the atrocities of the BJP but it is not necessary to fight all elections together.

CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chowdhury said the party had not forged any alliance with the Congress in the elections to Assembly, Lok Sabha and Panchayat.

“We made seat adjustments with the Congress in the electoral battles in the past to defeat the BJP which poses a threat to democracy,” he told the media.

Asserting that win or loss is not everything in an electoral process, Chowdhury said the party has fielded a candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls to protest the BJP’s ideology.

While the CPI(M) has 10 MLAs in the 60-member Tripura Assembly, the Congress has three. The ruling BJP has 33 legislators while its two allies - Tipra Motha and IPFT have 13 and one MLA respectively.