‘Back-channel negotiations are on and talks for a formal alliance are underway’.
NEW DELHI: The Congress is looking forward to having an alliance with the CPM in Tripura ahead of the state Assembly elections scheduled for February this year, according to sources both within the Congress and the CPM.
Sources within the Tripura Congress told The Sunday Guardian that back-channel negotiations are on and discussions for a formal alliance between the two parties are currently underway. However, the details and modalities of such an alliance and discussions have not been finalised yet and according to sources, the discussion are at a “nascent” stage.
“The final decision on any such alliance would be announced when all the details about seat sharing and other issues will be addressed.
The Congress is keen on this alliance as it feels the CPM and Congress together can put up a formidable fight against the incumbent BJP in Tripura,” a Congress functionary from Tripura told this correspondent.
The Congress’ newly appointed in-charge for Tripura, Deepa Das Munshi, has also reportedly affirmed this idea of an alliance with the CPM in the state which is likely to go to elections in February this year. However, the CPM is tight-lipped about this development and has refrained from making any statement in public so far.
Sources within the CPM said that the ironing out seat-sharing in the state would be difficult as the Congress is on a much weaker ground than that of the CPM in Tripura and the CPM would not budge if adequate numbers of seats are not given to them by the Congress.
The Congress in the 2018 Assembly elections of Tripura won zero seats in the state, with just 1.79% vote share, while the CPM had won 16 out of the 60 seats in the Assembly and secured 42.22% of vote share. But the CPM lost power to the BJP after ruling the state for almost 23 years.
The BJP won the Assembly elections in Tripura for the first time by securing 36 seats out of the total 60 Assembly seats and 43.59% of vote share.
But the Congress feels that the BJP has a massive anti-incumbency in the state and that the CPM is slowly re-bouncing in the state and that an alliance with the CPM would be beneficial for both the parties.
The Congress in Tripura also believes that their strongman and popular leader Sudip Roy Burman, who had switched over to the BJP ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections, caused a major dent to their party, but he has re-joined the party and also won the by-election on a Congress ticket, giving hopes to the party for a resurrection in the state.
The Congress also says that not only the CPM, the party is also looking at an alliance with other regional parties in Tripura, especially with the TIPRA Motha party led by Pradyut Manikya DebBarman, a member of the Tripura royal family.
It is also pertinent to remember here that the Congress and the CPM had fought Assembly elections in an alliance in Bengal in the past, but the parties or the alliance was not able to make any significant mark in Bengal.