Will seek report on political violence in Tripura: Amit Shah to TMC MPs

Tripura is one of the states where Mamata Banerjee’s party is trying to expand its footprints after trouncing the BJP in West Bengal

Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday assured a Trinamool Congress delegation that he would ask for a report from the Government of Tripura about political violence in the north-eastern state.

After staging a protest demonstration in front of the Ministry of Home Affairs at the North Block in the Raisina Hills for hours, 17 MPs of the Trinamool Congress finally got to meet the union Home Minister at his residence and lodged protest against violence unleashed on the party’s leaders and activists by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s workers in Tripura, where the polling for the civic elections would take place on November 25.

“We told him (Shah) in details how our leaders were arrested (by police in Tripura) and MPs were beaten up. He said that he had spoken to Tripura Chief Minister over phone yesterday (Sunday) & will seek a report from the state," Kalyan Banerjee, an MP of the Trinamool Congress, told journalists after meeting the union Home Minister in New Delhi.

Read | Trinamool will rout BJP in Tripura: Abhishek Banerjee

The Home Minister promised that political violence would be curbed in Tripura, Saugata Roy, another MP of the Trinamool Congress, said.

Banerjee, Roy and other MPs of the Trinamool Congress earlier staged a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Home Affairs at North Block, protesting against violent attacks on the party’s leaders and activists as well as its candidates contesting the civic polls in Tripura. They also protested against the arrest of the party’s youth wing leader and actress, Saayoni Ghosh, the attack on its local leader Subal Bhowmik’s residence in Agartala and alleged assault on its leaders and workers inside a police station. They raised slogans against Chief Minister of Tripura, Biplab Kumar Deb, and slammed the ruling BJP for allegedly unleashing goons on the Trinamool Congress’s leaders and workers in the north-eastern state.

The Trinamool Congress MPs alleged that they were not initially given an appointment with the union Home Minister. Shah, however, later had a meeting with them and accepted a memorandum from them.

Tripura is one of the states where Mamata Banerjee’s party is trying to expand its footprints after trouncing the BJP in the assembly elections in West Bengal earlier this year.

Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, arrived in New Delhi in the evening. A senior Trinamool Congress leader said that the party would decide on its next course of actions on BJP’s violent campaign against it in Tripura after reviewing the situation in a meeting to be chaired by the party supremo, who would obviously take into account the assessment the party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee would share with her after completing his visit to the state on Monday.

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Santanu Sen, Kalyan Banerjee, Derek O'Brien, Mala Roy 11 other MPs were part of the delegation that met Shah.

Watch latest videos by DH here: