'Congress DNA' runs in Pradyot Kishore, majority BJP leaders: Tripura Congress MLA

Tripura Congress MLA and former minister Sudip Roy Barman stirred the political scene on Thursday by asserting that several leaders from the ruling BJP and Tipra Motha founder Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma still carry “Congress DNA.”

The comment followed an unusual gesture by Pradyot, the former state Congress chief and royal scion of Tripura. On Wednesday, he returned a sack full of Congress flags to the party's headquarters in Agartala, flags that had remained in his possession since his time as state party president.

“Pradyot told me a few days ago that when he was the Tripura Congress president, the AICC had sanctioned some party flags which were still with him. I asked him to give them to me. Yesterday, he came with a full sack of Congress flags so that we could use them,” Roy Barman said. “He waited in the car and tried to find me, but I was not there, nor was the current party president. He was once our party president.”

Roy Barman used the gesture to make a larger point about political affiliations in the state, stating that many current leaders from rival parties have roots in the Congress.

“Pradyot’s DNA is Congress, and the majority of BJP leaders also carry Congress DNA. They have a soft corner for the Congress,” he claimed.

He also criticised what he described as an increasingly hostile political environment in the state, urging a return to civility in political interactions.

“Just because we are in politics doesn’t mean we cannot visit each other’s homes. This culture of hostility began after the BJP came to power. We must break this toxic political culture,” he said.