Democratic Secular Alliance of Congress and CPI (M) to organise rally on 21st January and meet in deputation with CEO/DM (West)

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, January 19, 2023

The newly floated Democratic Secular Alliance (DSA) comprising CPI (M) and Congress will hold rally of all secular , democratic forces including artists and intellectuals in Rabindra Shata Varshiki Bhawan on January 21. All the leaders of the CPI (M) and Congress will address the gathering of people on that day and will proceed to meet in deputation with the chief electoral officer (CEO) Kiran Gitte and , if he is not available, to meet the DM (West) Debapriya Bardhan to apprise him of the present volatile situation spawned by depredations of BJP and seek redressal of grievances and complaints on pre-poll violence. This was announced in a joint press conference addressed by the leaders of left front and Congress including CPI (M) state secretary Jiten Chowdhury and PCC president Birajit Sinha. The slogan of the rally and deputation programme will ‘I shall give my own vote and there must be terror-free election’. All the participants in the deputation and preceding procession will carry national flags in their hands and not party flags.

Speaking to media CPI (M) state secretary Jiten Chowdhury said that he had spoken to ‘Tipra Motha’ chairman Pradyot Kishore who is in Delhi. “He has extended his full support to our demand for free and fair election and has asserted that he will ensure no splitting of the opposition votes; we may have discussion after he returns from Delhi” said Jiten. He also significantly asserted that what he understands about ‘Tipra Motha’s demand for ‘Greater Tiprland’ is that the ADC areas in Tripura should have greater autonomy for socio-economic development of the tribal community of people who have been lagging behind in terms of developmental indices. “We support this interpretation of the demand for ‘Greater Tipraland’ as it is very much within the parameters of the constitution and there is nothing to fear for other communities living in ADC areas, so there is nothing wrong in this” said Jiten.

Jiten and other leaders present in the interaction with media like Birajit Sinha and Sudip Roybarman referred to the attacks and assaults on as many as 47 media persons in Tripura over the past five years and appealed to the media persons to be a part of the rally and deputation on January 21 to be organized by the Democratic Secular Alliance. The leaders deplored the mockery made of the Election Commission’s slogan of ‘Zero poll violence’ by the BJP through organized political violence. “It is a shame for the ECI that its stated motto is being so brazenly violated by the BJP ; we will focus on all these issues in our addresses to people” said Jiten and Birajit . They added that even ministers of the present government have been encouraging mafia elements and taking part in the violent attacks on the opposition , taking names of Pranjit Singha Roy in Udaipur, Sushanta Chowdhury in Jirania and Manoj Deb in Kamalpur and demanded that such activities of the ministers must be stopped. They asserted that the question of seat allocation for the parties will be decided as early as possible through discussion among themselves. Besides, a common minimum programme (CMP) will be worked out so that the parties with contradictory ideologies can function together.