‘BJP gaining grounds all over NE’
Agartala: Assam Minister and convener of BJP’s North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) Himanta Biswa Sarm has ruled out any possibility of forging an alliance with Trinamool Congress and Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura before the state assembly polls.
The senior BJP leader also said his party would form the government in Tripura. “We are not thinking of any alliance with TMC or IPFT. Rather, we are launching political struggle to unseat CPI-M led Left Front from power. BJP is spreading in the north-east and has gained strength in the region including in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland and unseated Congress in Assam,” said Sarma, who is also Assam’s finance minister. “We will also be able to unseat CPI-M led left Front in the coming assembly elections,” he told reporters on Monday.
Tripura, he said, is a badly-governed state where 68 per cent of the population lives below poverty line, eight lakh of its 40 lakh population is unemployed and the government employees get poor salaries as recommendations of the sixth central pay commission were not implemented.
It is BJP which can ensure development of Tripura, he claimed and lashed out at Tripura Chief Minister and CPI-M leader Manik Sarkar for disapproving the demonetisation move. “This move was to crush black money and only Prime Minister like (Narendra) Modi ji has dared to take this step. But CPI-M and its new ally, the TMC, continue to criticise this,” he said.
Sarma also campaigned for the upcoming by-poll at Barjala (SC) constituency here, which has fallen vacant due to resignation of Congress MLA Jiten Sarkar following internal feud in the party. (PTI)