By IANS,
Agartala : Despite a seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress will contest alone the Lok Sabha elections in Tripura.
The Trinamool Congress Wednesday said it has finalised its candidates for the two Lok Sabha constituencies in the Left ruled state.
“Congress leaders in Tripura ignored our party and that’s why with the approval of our party chief Mamata Banerjee we have fielded candidates in the two parliamentary constituencies,” said Dulal Das, the Trinamool Congress state president.
“Due to Congress’ non-political attitude, the non-Left votes would divide and the ruling Left Front candidates will get the benefit in the polls,” Das told the media.
Tripura Congress president Samir Ranjan Burman refused to make any comments.
The Trinamool Congress will field Arun Chandra Bhowmik from the Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency while party’s vice-president Rita Rani Debbarma will fight from Tripura East (reserved for tribals) seat.
Tripura will vote April 23.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has struck an alliance with a tribal based party Nationalist Council of Tripura (NCT). The NCT had partnered the Congress in last year’s assembly polls.
Another tribal-based party Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) and the Party for Democratic Socialism (PDS), a local party formed by breakaway leaders of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), have announced their support to the Congress.