Agartala, Feb. 19: Several senior Congress leaders, including a former chief minister and at least five sitting MLAs, are planning to quit the party and join the BJP in Tripura.
Congress sources said BJP?s central leader Dilip Singh Bhuriyan and party MP from Manipur, M. Kamson, had come to Tripura on official work. The two were closeted for more than an hour with Congress MLA Samir Ranjan Barman on January 31 inside the VIP room of Agartala airport.
All three boarded the same flight to Calcutta. What transpired between them was not clear. Barman was not available for comment either.
Possibly perturbed by the development, veteran Congress leader and MP from Silchar, Santosh Mohan Dev, landed in Agartala, having changed his direct ticket to Calcutta, on Sunday. He also held an hourlong meeting with Congress MLAs Surajit Dutta and Sudip Roy Barman, who is also the Youth Congress president, at the airport VIP lounge.
Dutta refused to say what was discussed at the meeting.
Sources in the Congress said of the 13 MLAs in the 60-member Tripura Assembly, five legislators, including Samir Barman, have informally decided to defect to the BJP. ?If five out of 13 can come out together, the anti-defection law will not be a problem. Things are definitely moving in that direction,? a source said.
He said several legislators, including Roy Barman, are in Delhi to hold final discussions with the BJP high-ups and prepare the ground for their entry.
Sources in the dissident camp opposed to PCC president Birajit Sinha said Congress MLAs and a number of senior party leaders were disillusioned with Sinha?s style of functioning and the party?s hobnobbing with the CPM at the national level.