Cong, Left MPs to visit violence-hit areas of Tripura from Friday

Taking forward their alliance in the state, the CPI(M), CPI, and Congress are sending a joint delegation of MPs to Tripura for a two-day visit to "violence-hit areas" from Friday to take stock of the damages suffered by Opposition workers after the Assembly election results and return of the BJP government in power.

Four CPI(M) MPs Elamaram Kareem, PR Natarajan, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, and AA Rahim, CPI's Binoy Viswam and Congress' Gaurav Gogoi, Ranjeet Ranjan, and Abdul Khalique will visit localities where party workers faced violence from the ruling BJP.

The parties have also decided to raise the issue in Parliament, when the Budget Session reconvenes from recess on Monday.

The leaders of CPI(M), CPI, and Congress said there has been an outbreak of violent attacks on their workers and leaders in Tripura after results were declared. They said several houses and party offices were attacked.

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"It is a very serious problem that such acts of violence are taking place under the leadership of the ruling party, which are causing misery to the people's independent lives. It is in this situation that a group of MPs decided to visit Tripura with the aim of understanding the situation in the state," a senior leader said.

The delegation will also meet Tripura Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya and submit to him a "detailed report on the destruction of democracy in Tripura".

Earlier this week, the CPI(M) had asked all its units across the country to organise protests against the "murder of democracy and unleashing of terror politics" by the BJP in Tripura.

In a statement last Monday, it strongly condemned the "savage post-poll violence" against the CPI(M), Left Front and opposition party cadres.

"As the results were being declared on March 2 and the BJP was inching towards a majority, an orgy of violence marking the daylight murder of democracy in Tripura was unleashed. Unwilling to accept that it won a wafer thin majority losing over 10 per cent of its vote share and the coalition losing 11 of its sitting seats, the BJP is mounting such orgy of violence," it had said.

The CPI(M) had said that a large number of violent attacks that destroyed homes and properties of CPI(M) supporters, physical attacks, extortion of money, and the imposition of an embargo on the livelihoods of common people had taken place.

"Out of a total of more than thousand incidents, in which so far three lives have been lost, details of 668 cases have been submitted to the state administration as the Governor remained unavailable to meet the CPI(M) and Left Front delegation," it had alleged.