Agartala: Sixty-six-year-old Manik Sarkar stands out as the sole sentinel of CPI(M) in the last bastion of leftist in Tripura.
Despite gradual erosion of party base in West Bengal and Kerala over the years, Sarkar is able to increase the support base across Tripura.
The political graph of CPI(M) in Tripura shows an exponential growth in past two decades under his leadership.
After assuming office as Chief Minister in March 1998, the party has participated as many as 15 major poll fights, including three general elections and three assembly elections. In all the occasions, the party secured a brilliant victory pushing off the opposition to minority from state Assembly to village Panchayats.
Faction riddled opposition Congress has got divided into three parts and in 2014 Lok Sabha poll in Tripura, Congress appears to be farthest in the political race.
Despite the Congress campaigning against Manik Sarkar-led government for increasing incidences of crime on women, corruption in administration, failure in mobilisation of resources and increasing domestic income and nepotism in job distribution, the UPA government in the Centre has bestowed 36 awards on the state for appreciable performance in programme implementation.
In spite of serious lacunas and failures of the government, opposition Congress has miserably failed to pursue the issues and brought up it to the common people because of factional squabbles and disintegrity among the leaders for public causes, commented former Congress leader and minister Jawhar Saha.
“Manik Sarkar not only could handle his party, he is also able to manage Tripura Pradesh Congress leaders well and as a result, the party supporters are now divided into Trinamool, Progressive Congress and a small portion is remain with Congress, as they are committed to CPI (M),’ Saha stated.
In past two assembly elections, Congress alone could secure about 44 per cent votes and other non-left and independent candidates secured about nine per cent votes. In spite of obtaining less than 50 per cent votes, Left Front retained power in state Assembly.
Besides, grassroots level organisations with hundreds of fronts and round the year political activities, Sarkar has made his cabinet colleagues on travel across the state in attending even a small programme at any level.
“We never refuse any invitation in my 25 years ministerial carrier unless it is controversial, commercial and we are pre-occupied that made all the ministers of left front as friend of the common people and we are always encouraged to meet people as much as we could do,” reiterates CPI(M) East Tripura nominee and state’s Industries and Commerce Minister Jitendra Chaudhury. In a recent interview, Sarkar stated that the success of Left front is curbing militancy and in restoring peace through a sustained political struggle, strategic action and economic development and people feel secure under left rule. (UNI)
