AGARTALA, Oct 18 ? The major political parties in Tripura have rejected the demand for chief ministership as a pre-condition by a faction of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) for coming overground, reports PTI. Tripura Finance Minister and CPI-M leader Badal Chowdhury said the State government would not consider any political demand of the outfit.
"NLFT(N) has spoken to the Central government and the Centre will decide what would be the conditions for peace talks. But we have made it clear to the Centre that no political demand of the outfit would be conceded by the state government," he told reporters here on Sunday.
The NLFT faction led by Nayanbasi Jamatiya had signed an agreement with the Centre suspending its operations for six months for creating a conducive atmosphere for talks.
The faction recently demanded, as the first pre-condition for peace talks, Jamatiya be made the Chief Minister of Tripura for five years as was done in the case with Laldenga in Mizoram. Party spokesman Goutam Das also echoed Chowdhury.
The vice-president of Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee and former minister Surajit Datta said the insurgent outfit should shun the path of violence for development of the State but the demand for chief ministership is "laughable." President of Tripura unit of BJP Ronojoy Sen said insurgency should be tackled firmly and the demand of NLFT(N) to make Jamatiya the CM was "completely irrelevant."