‘Chinese party, anti-national communists, Pakistan-loving Congress won’t open account’: Tripura minister

Tripura SC Welfare Minister Sudhangshu Das has claimed that the BJP-led NDA will win the upcoming Village Committee elections by a “huge margin”, while making sharp remarks against opposition parties during an election campaign on September 23.

Addressing a campaign programme for a BJP candidate, Das said the Village Committee polls were crucial as the elected bodies would function as grassroots-level institutions in the tribal areas.

The minister said the BJP was contesting the elections as part of the NDA alliance along with the Tipra Motha Party and the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT).

“In most places, the relationship that our alliance has is strong. In some cases, we are seeing a little exception because there has been no adjustment in some places in the local area. Even so, we see it as a friendly fight,” Das said.

He expressed confidence that NDA candidates would win and said alliance partners should prevail in areas where they had organisational strength.

“We believe that we will all together win the NDA candidates for the development of tribal areas, and wherever the Bharatiya Janata Party has strength, the BJP candidates will win,” he said.

Das then targeted the opposition, referring to unnamed political groups as the “Chinese party” and “anti-national communists”, while describing the Congress as “Pakistan-loving”.

“I doubt that the Chinese party or the anti-national communists or the Pakistan-loving Congress will be able to open their accounts in this election,” he said.

The remarks came amid an active campaign for the September 28 Village Committee elections under the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC). The polls are being held after a gap of around a decade.

The BJP, Tipra Motha and IPFT have been coordinating their campaigns as NDA partners, although leaders have acknowledged that differences and contests between alliance partners persist in some local areas.

The elections cover 587 Village Committees and 4,597 seats, with a significant number of seats already settled without contests.