Pradyot leads charge as many stalwarts return to Congress fold

AGARTALA: The reorganization drive launched by Tripura Congress president and royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarman has yielded rich dividends in the last three weeks in the shape of the return of at least 10 top political stalwarts into the party fold from BJP.
Pradyot pointed out that a large number of Congress leaders, including MLAs, who had been made instrumental in unseating the CPM from power last year in Tripura would be joining the Congress soon.After the visit of AICC chief Rahul Gandhi to Tripura on Wednesday, the entire political landscape of the state is expected to get transformed.
"The chief minister and party leaders believe that people voted them to power because of BJP but they did not realise that the people voted against the Communist misrule, where Congress leaders who joined the party had played a big role. The bad days of BJP has started now. BJP vice president Subal Bhowmik and SC leader Prakash Chandra Das have abandoned the party and joined Congress," he stated.
Congress sources said Pradyot has been trying to take advantage of the squabbles within BJP. He has wooed alliance partner IPFT with the promise that its members would be treated with 'honour' if it ends its alliance. Tribal votes are expected to be divided in three blocks because a large section of the IPFT is not happy with the BJP. If the IPFT alliance formally breaks up, a large section of the tribals would not vote for the saffron party. The tribal-based opposition INPT has fielded candidates separately. After the change of guard with the royal scion at the helm, the anti-Left vote has gone to the Congress.
As an immediate remedy, deputy CM Jishnu Dev Varma held a meeting with top leaders of the IPFT at his official residence on Monday night but that could not yield any result. Bhowmik's joining the Congress is expected to adversely affect BJP support. The reason why Bhowmik revolted was because he had wanted to contest from the prestigious Banamalipur constituency in Agartala in the last election but was replaced by BJP president Biplab Kumar Deb. Bhowmik was shifted to Sonamura in Sepahijala and lost.
Said one of his followers, "He was assured that he would be suitably compensated but when Deb became chief minister and Bhowmik wanted to be made party president, his request was turned down by Amit Shah. This election too, Subal appeared as the most aspiring candidate from West Tripura but his name was struck off."