Jan. 31: The Trinamul Congress today announced a pre-poll alliance with the BJP in Tripura, where the party?s set-up had come crumbling down due to a series of desertions.
The state goes to the polls on February 26.
Formalising the tie-up in Calcutta today, Trinamul chairperson Mamata Banerjee said: ?Our party and the BJP have decided not to field candidates against one another.?
While Trinamul Congress will contest in 35 segments, the BJP will put up nominees in the rest 25 seats in the 60-member House.
Talks between Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee and BJP president Venkaiah Naidu earlier this month led to the sealing of the poll pact, sources said.
The Trinamul Congress today released the names of 24 candidates for the Tripura polls. These include former minister Motilal Saha, ex-MLA Amal Mallick, former Agartala municipality councillor Radheshyam Saha, former chief of the Tripura Congress? tribal cell, Birendra Deb Barman, and Jishnu Deb Barman, a tribal leader.
The party will shortly announce the names of its candidates for the remaining 11 constituencies. The BJP today sent the first list of its candidates, comprising 15 names, to Mamata Banerjee and is expected to inform her of the 10 other nominees soon.
Trinamul general secretary Mukul Roy, who had already visited the state several times recently for seat-sharing talks with the BJP, today demanded imposition of President?s rule in Tripura to ensure free and fair polls.
?We have already urged the Election Commission to recommend President?s rule in view of the CPM government?s total failure to maintain law and order and combat insurgency,? he said.
Banerjee is expected to visit the state to kick off her party?s campaign soon. She said the Trinamul would target both the CPM and the Congress in the campaign. ?We will urge the people not to vote either for the CPM or the Congress since the two parties have entered into a secret alliance to help each other,? she claimed.
Hit by the desertion of several important leaders like Sudhir Ranjan Mazumder, the BJP-Trinamul combine has its task cut out. The Left Front walks a tightrope in the state and may meet with success only if the BJP-Trinamul combine can cut into the traditional Congress bastions, observers in Agartala said.