Tripura Congmen intensify move for PCC chief?s removal

AGARTALA, April 20 ? The demand for removal of PCC president Birajit Sinha from the party unit chief?s post has been intensified. A group of 27 dissident PCC members and senior leaders of the party?s State unit led by MLA Kashiram Reang, MLA Dipak Roy and former MLA Tapas Dey left for New Delhi on Friday. The MLAs are known as followers of former Chief Minister Samir Ranjan Barman. Barman?s son and MLA Sudip Roy Barman, who is also Youth Congress president, is expected to fly for Delhi on Monday next. Some more including those MLAs who recently sent a memorandum to AICC for Sinha?s replacement, are expected to leave for Delhi soon. CLP leader Jawhar Shaha who has of late fallen apart from Birajit Sinha will leave for Delhi on April 24 or 25. Sinha himself is also expected to meet the party high command soon. Squabbles among the Congress for the coveted post is nothing new, but of late the infighting took an unprecedented turn in Tripura with leaders and workers coming out in open slinging mud at each other. There was a new realignment of forces with all the Sinha detractors coming together. Though among them there are at least four PCC chief?s post aspirants like former Chief Minister Samir Ranjan Barman, CLP leader Jawhar Shaha, MLA Surajit Datta and former minister Dipak Nag, the common programme that bound the leaders is ?immediate removal of Birajit Sinha?. All of them are convinced that the party will bite dust if it goes to Assembly poll with Sinha at the helm of affairs. Congress has not only fared poorly in all the elections under the presidentship of Sinha, he is also accused of running the party in on arbitrary manner ignoring the senior leaders. All important decisions were taken keeping the PCC in dark, the latest being the Minimum Common Agenda with the ally INPT. Moreover, till date he did not constitute the committees at district and block levels. However, Birajit Sinha group alleges that his decision to field local candidates has irked some of the Congress leaders who will now find it hard to get an Assembly segment. ?For example, there is a strong demand from Matabari constituency to field a local non-tribal candidate this time from Congress,? said a Sinha follower. The Assembly segment though general seat, is represented by Congress ST Cell chief Kashiram Reang. ?When the AICC observers came there were five applications for party nominations in this seat, and all are local non-tribals. The party workers said any of these five locals should be given ticket this time and naturally the high command on policy will agree to it. So it is expected that Kashiram Reang will go against Sinha,? he observed.