Sonia denies Tripura ally’s militant links

Congress president Sonia Gandhi today slammed allegations that her party’s poll partner in the state, the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), has any links with banned extremist outfits.

‘‘We have forged an alliance with the INPT deliberately because they abide by the Constitution and have respect for Parliamentary democracy,’’ Sonia said, adding, ‘‘I am saying this because there is an evil design against them.’’ The ruling CPI(M) has alleged that the INPT is the overground outfit of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura.

Coming down heavily on the CPI(M), Sonia said: ‘‘There is no existence of a government outside Agartala town. Even the basic rights of the people have been suspended.’’

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The Congress chief spoke for 16 minutes at the Astabal Grounds and almost every sentence of her written speech urged the people of Tripura to bring an end to the Left’s ‘‘decade of terror’’.

Sonia directly accused the Left Front of dividing the people along tribal and non-tribal lines, leading to violence, unemployment, closing of schools in hill areas and women being tortured.