United colours of Left, Congress at first major joint Tripura rally

The Left Front’s red crescent-and-sickle flags mingled with the Congress’s hand-and-Tiranga colour ones in the crowd, numbering at least 10,000.

And rallying the troops from the stage was none other than Tripura’s tallest Left leader Manik Sarkar, the former chief minister of 20 years, who spent most of that time fighting the Congress. From the Congress’s side were its state president Birajit Sinha and AICC general secretary in-charge of Tripura Ajay Kumar.

With just five more days of campaigning left, there were similar Left Front and Congress joint rallies elsewhere too, with other stalwarts of the two parties sharing the stage.

Among those listening keenly as Sarkar spoke was Sanjib Ali, 50, of Babur Bazaar village, 10 km from Kailashahar. A mason, Ali spoke of dwindling work and incomes in the past few years. Less forthright on his political preferences, Ali said he came to the rally curious to hear what the two former rivals had to say. “I don’t understand much about politics. People like us only hope for food in our stomachs and peace in our area.” This is what makes him worry about the new alliance. “All we want is that there is no violence… The colours of the flags are not important.”

Amjad Ali, 35, came from Magruli village, located along the border in one of the northernmost points of the Kailashahar constituency. A daily wager, he says they were angry at their sitting MLA Mabashwar Ali defecting from the CPI(M) to the BJP at the last minute.

A Congress supporter, he was anxious that the party might not get the seat in the arrangement with the Left Front. The fact that the two sides zeroed in on Congress Tripura president Birajit Sinha, who has won from the seat thrice earlier, thrills their hearts. (It was also the reason for Ali’s defection.)

Amjad Ali says any remaining doubts they had regarding the Congress-Left tie-up had been removed with Sinha being fielded. “Mabashwar Ali can be defeated this time.”

One common refrain among the people at the rally was the BJP’s “failure” to fulfill its 2018 promises, leaving them cold towards the slew of freebies it announced in its poll manifesto Thursday.

In his speech, Sarkar accused the BJP of “tearing the secular fabric of Tripura”. Claiming that “nobody could hurt secularism” when the Left Front was in power, he talked about the fallout of an incident in Bangladesh. “Reactionary forces committed an incident there during the Durga Puja two years back. There were communal incidents in Tripura, especially in areas of mixed habitation, minorities were attacked,” he said, accusing the ruling BJP of having a hand.

Talking about joining forces with the Congress, Sarkar said: “The partnership has a single-point agenda — to save the Constitution and democracy… Our respective politics would continue, we have even released separate manifestos. But in order to save Tripura, save democracy, this seat-sharing was necessary.”

Adding that “this is not an alliance, neither a joint forum”, the former CM appealed to the people to “not waste votes” and ensure there was no vote division and choose either the Congress or Left Front on seats where they have put up candidates.

Sarkar also talked about the Left Front manifesto’s focus on “real issues pertaining to people’s lives”, like the promise of 2.5 lakh jobs, 200 days of work, annual hike in wages, security of livelihood for Anganwadi and ASHA workers, free electricity till 50 units, and hiked MSP rates for paddy procurement.

Congress general secretary Ajay Kumar said with democracy and the rule of law “immobilised” in Tripura under BJP rule since 2018, all elections since had been “reduced to a mockery”. If the people vote for them, he said, the “fascist” BJP would not win.

Congress Tripura chief Sinha thanked the Left Front for extending support to the party, and said they were fighting together for a “historical reason”. “Violence, extortion and loot in Tripura in the last five years is unparalleled across the country,” Sinha said.