GUWAHATI: The Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) has urged the state chief electoral officer to take legal action against chief minister, Biplab Kumar Deb for allegedly making false statements against Congress with a view to create communal hatred in violation of the model code of conduct.
In a letter to the state CEO, TPCC vice-president, Tapas Dey alleged that Deb, who is also the president of BJP state unit, “repeatedly made false statements against Congress and TPCC president, Pradyot Kishore Debbarman to create communal hatred and with a view to divide the community on the basis of caste and religion.”
“Biplab Kumar Deb is using words for promoting enmity between different groups of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language and those assertions are prejudicial to national integration and punishable under Section 153-A and 153-B of Indian Penal Code and also punishable under Sections 504, 505 (d) (c) of IPC. As such to create an atmosphere for fair election, your honour is requested to lodge FIR against Deb for his immediate detention in judicial custody,” the letter to the CEO read.
The TPCC vice-president further said that Deb was also “threatening the voters through his speeches in public meetings that if BJP candidates are defeated, people of Tripura will be deprived of the benefits of the existing government schemes. “So he should immediately be restrained from making such threats,” Dey said.
The TPCC leader regretted the fact that despite complaints lodged at police stations, police were yet to take any action against “BJP hooligans who are threatening Congress supporters against going to the polling stations on the day of the election and also attacking Congress workers and even candidates in areas like Kakraban, Nalchar, Sonamura, Tulakona, Amarpur, Khowai, Kalyanpur, Kamalpur, Sabroom, Belonia, Teliamura among others.
He further alleged that the TPCC president has not been provided security and escort so as to prevent him from reaching out to voters.
The state Congress alleged that the democratic atmosphere in Tripura has been vitiated by such activities and comments.
“Unless remedial steps are taken, free and fair election is not possible in Tripura. It is the duty of the Election Commission to create an atmosphere for free and fair election, which is completely absent in Tripura,” the letter read.
Seeking immediate intervention of the CEO, the TPCC leader said that all the polling stations in the state should be declared “very sensitive” ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The TPCC also wrote a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner to ensure live streaming in all the polling stations for the entire period of voting and introduce face detection software to ensure that no false voting could take place.