Marxist Minister played cultural Trump card in Tripura
Sarkar, who has become quite a rebel in Marxist ruling Hegemony after writing poetry on Mayawati, claims that the Marxists will romp home with landslide victory. He has been talking on phone all these days despite our stance against Nandigram and Singur.
I have written on Anil sarkar`s philosophy of Love against insurgency in North east which is strikingly different from Delhi`s Mannerism to address nationality problem with all the Guns of State Power! Rather, the Marxist Minister, who had been instrumental to set up CPIM`s political dalit agenda and has the key role to mobilise the Dalit Bengali Refugees scattered countrywide as CPIM`s Vote bank, tries to go back the cultural roots to solve the Identity Crisis of nationalities. Tripura is an example of Co existance of SC Bengal Ruling Hegemony with tribal identity. Patriotic and modern songs, street plays, poems and colourful decorations using small trees were the highlights in the run-up to Saturday’s assembly elections in Tripura, thanks to the Marxist dalit Minister.
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Please read,react,circulate and Write.Just Visit:
http://www.nandigramunited.blogspot.com/
Forward as you wish. Permission is granted to circulate this article among private individuals and groups, post on all Internet sites and publish in full in all not-for-profit publications. Contact author for all other rights, which are reserved.
West Bengal Left front Goverment executed Maraichjhanpi Massacre to protect Environment violating International and inland water laws. Just see:
On Line Video Petition against Marichjhanpi Genocide:
http://indiainteracts.com/videos/2008/02/07/Marichjhanpi-genocide/
Just read these documents:
morichjhanpi.blogspot.com
Our best friend and philosopher in North East, the poet and dalit thinker, a Marxist minister in Tripura Left front minister, Anil Sarkar has played the Cultural trump Card most effectively in Assembly Votes. We will know the results on 7th March. Sarkar, who has become quite a rebel in Marxist ruling Hegemony after writing poetry on Mayawati, claims that the Marxists will romp home with landslide victory. He has been talking on phone all these days despite our stance against Nandigram and Singur. He always refrined to comment on West bengal or Kerala. But he, at the same time, tries his level best to differentiate Tripura from other two left ruled states.He told me that all prdictions would go wrong and Congress has no scope to get new grownd in West Bengal. According to Sarkar, in fact, Congress will lose some more seats this time despite forward Block factor. He described the phenomenon as the Political Will Power of chief Minister Manik Sarkar to sustain peace, law and order - mass mobilisation of Anil sarkar - and Party Organisation set up. Sarkar said that he never tried to politicalise his election campain but he tried his election campaign as mass mobilisation with Cultural Dimensions all the way. And, thus, Patriotic Songs, Poems Dominated Tripura Poll Campaign !
Sarkar, who is also a renowned poet and writer, is seeking re-election to the assembly as CPI(M) nominee from the Pratapgarh constituency in west Tripura for a record eighth time.He has himself composed several folk songs in a bid to connect with the people.
I have written on Anil sarkar`s philosophy of Love against insurgency in North east which is strikingly different from Delhi`s Mannerism to address nationality problem with all the Guns of State Power! Rather, the Marxist Minister, who had been instrumental to set up CPIM`s political dalit agenda and has the key role to mobilise the Dalit Bengali Refugees scattered countrywide as CPIM`s Vote bank, tries to go back the cultural roots to solve the Identity Crisis of nationalities. Tripura is an example of Co existance of SC Bengal Ruling Hegemony with tribal identity.
Patriotic and modern songs, street plays, poems and colourful decorations using small trees were the highlights in the run-up to Saturday’s assembly elections in Tripura, thanks to the Marxist dalit Minister. Moreover, Both the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the main opposition Congress had organised poll campaigns using colourfully decorated vehicles draped with party flags and festoons. Quite different from rest of the country. We witness the dirty game of Vote bank in mainland as Raj Thackeray and later, his mentor Bal Thakeray launched a campaign against Hindi Speaking People in Maharashtra. It is vice versa in North India. Even in West Bengal , the Marxist ruling Brahminical hegemony banks on rearrangement of demography for vote Bank consolidation!
Anil sarkar told me, ` i was not tense anyway and I enjoyed this Election as a Cultural Progrramme! I am not well and I had sound sleep all the way!”
‘Our campaign with the versatile cultural performance has largely impacted the minds of the people and we have succeeded in winning the hearts of voters by using cultural presentation,’ said state Information and Cultural Minister Anil Sarkar.
All the party booth offices of Congress here and other parts of the state are echoing with Bankim Chandra’s ‘Vande Mataram’ song.
Tripura goes ahead with imminent Assembelly elections. anil sarkar is Sure that the ruling Left Front wil romp home once agin with thumping majority! We discussed a lot on Tripura and North East. He has been the architect of CPIM`s dalit agenda in Hyderabad conference along with West bengal CPIM secretary Biman Bose! He is also involved with dalit mobilisation nationwide. he played key role to organise dalit Bengali refugee Convention In new delhi last year and subsiding the Mulnivasi bamcef impact on dalit Bengali refugee politics antionwide. Brinda Karat is working hard in Bengali Refugee bases outside Bengal.
Anil Sarkar has focused on dalit movement. He is leading Ambedkar Missions in North east and east india. he is behind the Dalit Co Ordination Committe in West Bengal. he leads the dalit sahitya movement. He arranges book Fairs and folk festivals. He practices Politics with cultural recipe! Last year he organised Grand Baul Mela in ADC tribal area of Tripura. He prescribes Vaishnav Love to deal with insurgency and extremism!
Anil Sarkar holds Information and Culture, Tourism and SC welfare portfolios in the Cabinet. banking on these low profile portfolios Anil sarkar in his indigenous spectacular mannerism and folk based political rehtorics is well capable to interact on the on hand with all states and nationalities in North eats and on the other hand demolish Extrism in Tripura. Thus, the chief Minister manik sarkar is unable to get an alternative of Anil Sarkar who has been successful to use language, dilects, folk, music, dance,literature , dalit movement, Ambedkar, tagore, mayawati, refugees and nationalities as political tools in favour of the ruling Left front!
Leftist writerfaces caste slur SEKHAR DATTA
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030226/asp/northeast/story_1692847.asp
Agartala, Feb. 25: For all its reputation as a rebel-infested state, Tripura has been free from the Bihar variety of caste-based political violence.
Yet Marxist poet-politician Anil Sarkar has been accused of making a conscious attempt to introduce such a trend in Tripura — albeit in his own way. He named his dog “Brahmin” and even spurned prasad (consecrated food) offered to him as education minister by students during Saraswati Puja.
Now seeking a fresh term in the seat of power from the Pratapgarh Assembly constituency, Anthony Firangi — the pseudonym under which Sarkar pens ballads and rhymes — looks a harried man.
The first discordant note was struck by some Brahmin voters in the Thakurpara hamlet, when the controversial education minister was on a door-to-door campaign there on February 6. “You have been saying all kinds of things against the Brahmins, now why do you come for votes?” asked Benoy Chakraborty, a schoolteacher and a priest.
A constituency reserved for Scheduled Castes near Agartala, Pratapgarh has only about 20 per cent “upper caste” voters among the 56,109-strong electorate.
“The point is, the so-called upper castes, mostly government employees and rich businessmen, can influence voters down the social ladder,” said Bhajan Lal Das, a senior CPM leader and close ally of Anil Sarkar. And this is what worries the CPM, as the Scheduled Castes are drifting away from the party.
In Ananda Nagar, Jogendra Nagar, Jarul Bachai, Purba Aralia and other villages, the Congress candidate, Narayan Das, has found good support from the electorate.
“For all of Sarkar’s rhetoric, the poor people of Pratapgarh have got practically nothing from the CPM over the past decade and naturally they welcome us this time,” said Ranjit Das, a PCC member.
Sarkar worked his way up the CPM ladder the hard way, narrowly escaping disciplinary action in 1994 for “taking to bourgeois ways”, according to a top CPM leader.
The education minister was photographed in all prominent national dailies taking a snap of Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa at a meeting in Delhi — construed as a “cardinal sin” in the CPM’s spartan code of conduct. “Had Nripen Chakraborty not been expelled from the party in 1995, Anilda would have found himself thrown out,” the CPM leader said.
A “sensitive man” and a “Dalit poet”, Sarkar could not bear the shock of hundreds of stalls, including some from Tripura, at the Calcutta Book Fair in 1998, go up in flames. He suffered a heart attack. The bypass surgery he underwent had a telling effect on his political mobility.
“The most bizarre spectacle was the veteran Marxist leader lecturing friends and acquaintances on the virtue of the products of a multinational company of which his son is the sole agent,” Prabodh Sarkar, a publisher, said.
The writing on the wall is clear: the battle for Pratapgarh will be a tough one but Sarkar’s die-hard followers are convinced that the “Dalits of Pratapgarh will not deny Anilda his last victory”.
“He has never lost an election since 1972 and won five times with convincing margin from Pratapgarh, so we do not visualise him losing,” Samar Chakraborty, a local CPM committee secretary, said.
On the question of this being Sarkar’s last election, Chakraborty minced no words: “After the bypass surgery, he is physically down and he knows it”.
Strange as it may sound, Anil Sarkar is touring many constituencies and addressing meetings to swing Scheduled Caste voters in the CPM’s favour.
“He knows his people will not let him down ultimately as the entire Scheduled Caste community of Tripura awaits the outcome of the polls in Pratapgarh,” Chakraborty added.
Tripura Sanskriti Samannay Kendra, the literary and cultural front of the CPI-M, composed modern and folk songs, which criticised the Congress’ failure across the country and its alliance with the tribal based Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT).
On the other hand, Congress is trying to woo voters using old patriotic songs of Lata Mangeshkar and other renowned singers.
‘Our campaign with the versatile cultural performance has largely impacted the minds of the people and we have succeeded in winning the hearts of voters by using cultural presentation,’ said state Information and Cultural Minister Anil Sarkar.
Sarkar, who is also a renowned poet and writer, is seeking re-election to the assembly as CPI(M) nominee from the Pratapgarh constituency in west Tripura for a record eighth time.
He has himself composed several folk songs in a bid to connect with the people.
All the party booth offices of Congress here and other parts of the state are echoing with Bankim Chandra’s ‘Vande Mataram’ song.
‘We believe in true patriotism and that’s why our party is using patriotic songs during the poll campaign,’ said Ratan Lal Nath, leader of the state Congress.
The Tripura prevention of Defacement of property (Amendment) Act 1998 is now in force. Also, the Election Commission has asked the political parties not to use any static assets and buildings besides government properties as part of their poll campaign. So the candidates have put up a large number of party flags on small trees, bamboo groves and banana plants on the roadside.
Lanes and by-lanes are also decorated with flags of Left parties, Congress and others.
‘Poll fever has gripped the entire state even as the official machinery and security forces are busy to ensure the elections are held in a free and fair manner,’ said Chief Electoral Officer G.S.G. Ayyangar.
In all 313 candidates, including 31 women and 64 independents, are testing their electoral fortune in Saturday’s election to the 60-seat Tripura assembly.
 People’s Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
|
Vol. XXVI
No. 39
October 06,2002
|
Tripura Solidarity Day Observed Nationwide
THE CPI(M) Delhi state committee organised a hall meeting on September 30 to express solidarity with the people of Tripura, who are waging a heroic struggle under the leadership of the Left Front against secessionist attempts of the terrorists. The meeting, held as part of the Party Central Committee call to observe September 30 as a Tripura Solidarity Day, was addressed by Anil Sarkar, a minister in the Left Front government of Tripura and by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Prakash Karat.
The meeting began with a stirring song, in Kok Barak, the language of the tribal people of Tripura, by well known cultural activist from the state, Hemanta Jamatiya. He was once a member of NLFT, a terrorist outfit led by Bejoy Hrangkhawl. From his own experience Jamatiya came to realise the anti-people nature of the NLFT and quit the outfit to join the Left.
Anil Sarkar traced the record of terrorist activities in Tripura since 1978, when the first Left Front government came to power in the state. He referred in detail to the attempts made by tribal terrorist outfits and the Bengali chauvinist group, Amra Bengali, to disrupt the unity of the tribal and non-tribal people. He also exposed the thoroughly opportunist and anti-national role of the Congress in allying with those forces which want to separate Tripura from India. Hundreds of CPI(M) cadres have been killed in facing the nefarious designs of these anti-national forces. He referred to the terror tactics adopted by the extremists to capture the Autonomous District Council and gave facts and figures to show how this had impacted adversely on the lives of the tribal people. He expressed confidence that the CPI(M)-led Left Front would once again emerge victorious in the forthcoming state assembly elections in 2003.
Prakash Karat referred to the difficult security scenario in Tripura and accused the BJP-led central government of playing partisan politics at the cost of national integrity by consistently refusing to provide Tripura with the security forces necessary to effectively patrol the state’s 856 km long border with Bangladesh. The terrorist gangs have their bases in Bangladesh from where they operate their campaign of murder and mayhem. The tribal cadres of the CPI(M), both men and women are targeted by the extremists and as a result about 100 comrades are martyred each year. He dubbed the alliance of the Congress with extremist groups in Tripura as an anti-national act and called for exposure of this heinous role of the Congress through out the country. The CPI(M) has a long history of struggle and sacrifice in Tripura. Its popularity can be gauged from the fact that every fourth inhabitant of the state is a member of the CPI(M) or its mass organisations. He concluded with a call to take the facts regarding Tripura to the people and to build widespread solidarity with the Tripura Party, the Left Front government and the brave people of the state.
WEST BENGAL
Tripura Solidarity Day was observed throughout Bengal at the call of the Left Front on September 30. Meetings, rallies and conventions marked the day when the people of Bengal expressed their solidarity with the people of Tripura, which faces the conspiratorial moves of the separatist elements backed by the vested interests of that small hilly state.
Two central conventions were organised. Both were very well attended. Manik Sarkar, the Tripura chief minister and Polit Bureau member of the CPI (M), addressed the Kolkata convention. Aghor Deb Barman, a minister in the Left Front government of Tripura spoke at the convention held at Siliguri.
Manik Sarkar spoke at length on the contingent nature of the situation that Tripura faces now. The democratic people of Tripura, said Sarkar, faced a critical challenge from the separatists who were being backed by the Tripura unit of the Congress.
The uneven nature of development and the neglect meted out to the northeastern region of the country under successive union governments, said the Tripura chief minister, caused the people there to suffer from acute impoverishment. This led to a feeling of frustration to the extent that in most of the northeastern states, elements of separatism could spring up.
But that was not the whole story. Eager to draw political mileage from the volatile situation, the Congress, both at the centre and in Tripura, went in for a policy of dangerous opportunism when they represented themselves as the party of the Bengalis. They also attempted to emerge as the champion of the cause of the refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan, who had been provided shelter in Tripura by the tribal people indigenous to that part of the country.
During the long periods of time when it remained in office by means fair and foul, the Tripura Congress leadership did almost nothing to go in for economic development of the tracts of land where the tribal people lived. Economic disparity ultimately led to political and social frustration and a small percentage of the tribal youth was driven to take up arms.
Sarkar argued how the Communist Party always had had a strong base among the tribal people and how that was one reason why the Congress would do nothing to improve the lot of the tribal groups in Tripura. Sarkar mentioned how the separatist activities suddenly underwent a sharp rise the moment the first Left Front government assumed office in 1978.
Touching on the role of the CIA and the ISI, Manik Sarkar described how training camps were run from neighbouring Bangladesh, and how the BJP-led union government, following in the foot steps of its Congress predecessors, would not lift a finger to speak to the government in Bangladesh over this crucial issue.
The 86-odd kilometres long border between Tripura and Bangladesh has not been protected with wire fencing. Units of the Indian Army are being continuously withdrawn from Tripura. The call for augmenting the units of the Border Security Force is patently ignored by the BJP-led government up in Delhi.
In the meanwhile, the Tripura unit of the Congress has continued to organise electoral alliances with various separatist groups, including the Tripura National Volunteers (TNV), the Tripura Upajati Juba Samity (TUJS), the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), and the Indigenous National Party of Tripura (INPT). And, recalled Manik Sarkar, Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi would not respond to CPI (M) Polit Bureau member, Sitaram Yechury’s letter on the growing alliance between the separatist forces and the Congress in Tripura.
With the Assembly elections approaching, there is a spurt in the separatist activities in Tripura. Leaders like Hrangkhawl are allowed to address international fora and to speak in favour of the "rightful" demand for secessionism by the "indigenous people of Tripura."
The democratic-minded people of Tripura said Manik Sarkar, whether tribal or non-tribal, stood firm behind the Left Front and the Left Front government in that province. They never forget for a moment how it had been the Communist leadership, which had worked towards an early establishment of unity between all sections of the working people of Tripura. In conclusion, Sarkar exhorted upon the people of Bengal to stand firmly behind the people of Tripura in this hour of crisis when national and international forces of reaction were out to destabilise not merely Tripura, and not only the resource-rich northeastern India, but also the country as a whole.
Biman Basu, chairman of the Bengal Left Front presided over the meeting where the entire array of the state leadership of the CPI (M) and the Left Front was in present..
KERALA
All the fourteen district committees of CPI(M) observed ‘Tripura Solidarity Day’ with seminars and public meetings at district centers on September 30. Speakers at these meetings offered full back up and solidarity with the left and democratic forces of Tripura in their heroic resistance to the divisive forces working in that state with the active participation and help of outsiders. The earlier polices of the Congress (I) and the present one of BJP in the centre have been quite detrimental to the peaceful, ordinary economic and democratic development of Tripura and the people are therefore suffering much. The meetings urged the central government to review its policy towards Tripura.
Left Front gets majority in Tripura
March 01, 2003 22:34 IST
The ruling Left Front in Tripura, in power continuously since 1992, on Saturday secured an absolute majority in the 60-member house, securing 40 seats.
The opposition Congress-Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura combine cobbled up 19 seats each of the 59 results declared so far.
Left Front major Communist Party of India (Marxist) itself secured absolute majority winning 36 seats, while partners RSP won two and CPI one.
Prominent winners from among the the outgoing Manik Sarkar government included Education Minister Anil Sarkar, Information Minister Jiten Chowdhury, Minorities Minister Faizur Rehaman, Industries Minister Pabitra Kar, Social Welfare Minister Bidhubhushan Malakar (all CPI-M) and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Gopal Das of RSP.
The winners in the opposition included former Chief Minister Samir Ranjan Burman [Congress], INPT president Bijoy Hrankhawl and former speaker Jyotirmoy Nath [Congress], while former chief minister Sudhir Ranjan Mazumdar, Leader of the Opposition Jawhar Saha [both Congress] and former minister, Ratimohan Jamatiya [INPT] lost.
| Tripura Elections 2008’s Profile : |
 |
|
 The state of Tripura went to the polls in February 2008 to elect 60 legislators, as declared by the Election Commission of India.
Voting was held on February 23, 2008. The vote counting will take place on March 07, 2008.
|
| Tripura Elections 2008 – vital statistics |
| Total Voters |
20,36,980 |
| Total Polling Stations |
2391 |
| Female Voters |
9,96,582 |
| Male Voters |
1040398 |
|
The last Tripura assembly elections were held in 2003 where the Communist Party of India (Marxist), led by Manik Sarkar had claimed a comfortable victory.
| Tripura Elections 2003 – Snapshot |
|
Militants kidnap PSU staff in TripuraMSN India, India - 4 Mar 2008Agartala: Separatist National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) militants kidnapped two surveyors of a public sector undertaking company in Tripura, …
|
Tripura Cong duo die after poll debateCalcutta Telegraph, India - 3 Mar 2008Agartala, March 3: Two Congress supporters died of cardiac complications in Tripura yesterday following heated debates about the outcome of the Assembly …
|
Attack slur on Tripura CPMCalcutta Telegraph, India - 2 Mar 2008Agartala, March 2: The Congress leadership in Tripura has accused the CPM of assaulting its workers in the wake of February 23 Assembly elections that …
|
Airtel service expansion drive in TripuraDeepika, India - 2 Mar 2008Agartala, Mar 2 (UNI) As part of network expansion drive in Tripura, Bharati Airtel Ltd has launched mobile phone service to ensure world class …
|
Tripura Chief Minister hails Rail BudgetNDTV.com, India - 27 Feb 2008Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, on Wednesday, welcomed the Railway Budget as it provided many sops for the northeastern states. …
|
 People’s Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
|
Vol. XXXII
No. 09
March 02, 2008
|
TRIPURA
Unprecedented Voter Turnout In 10th Assembly Elections
Subrata Chakraborty
CREATING a major milestone in the history of the democratic movement in Tripura, polling in the 10th Assembly elections of the state recorded 91.86 per cent following the election held on February 23, 2008. The state electorate exercised their franchise in an unprecedented festive fight of the people against all odds, unprecedented not only in the country, but also within Tripura where trouble-free polls in carnival atmosphere is the tradition.
The people of Tripura through the peaceful poll gave a befitting reply to the campaign of deception and disinformation carried out by the Congress party and its ally, the outlawed extremists’ political wing INPT, aided by a section of mercenary media miscreants and militants. Even the central observer of the Congress party and union minister Prithviraj Chauhan making a u-turn from his 24-hour earlier statement, stated that the people’s massive turnout in almost all the seats of the state, is a landmark in the world’s democratic election scenario. Incidentally, hours before commencement of the polls, Chauhan charged the CPI(M) with massively terrorising the state’s electorate. He, however, interpreted the electorate’s massive turn out as the harbinger of the poll verdict in favour of Congress-INPT combine, a stock interpretation of the Congress leadership in Tripura, designed to whitewash the unprecedented falsification of polls with which the Congress-TUJS combine swept all the elections during its barbarically semi-fascist jungle rule in 1988-93.
In fact, peaceful and historic turnout in the 10th Assembly elections in Tripura was the culmination of the people’s robust and rousing rebuff and rebuttal of the Congress-INPT combine’s two-pronged campaign, campaign of terror making use of armed extremists and miscreants in tribal areas on one hand, and campaign of deception and disinformation by making use of a section of mercenary media in urban areas, especially in the state capital, on the other. In the 2003 elections, Congress-INPT combine bagged 19 seats with such two-pronged tactics, emboldening it to take to the same tactics for 2008 too, hoping against hope for anti-incumbency factor against the Left Front government to capture power.
But a sea-change had taken place all over Tripura in the meantime. The Left Front restored the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council in 2005 from armed extremists stranglehold brought about by the INPT high-jacking at extremist gunpoint the year 2000 ADC polls. The restoration was the result of the ceaseless three-pronged counter-insurgency struggle of the Left Front government by ideological, administrative and developmental means. The Left Front’s restoration of ADC by a massive mandate at the first ADC village committee elections in 2006 which finally turned the tide against the extremists in Tripura through democratic local-self governance spreading to the grass roots all over the ADC areas and making possible the implementation of the development programmes in the ADC areas languishing in the darkness of backwardness for decades.
At the same time the breaking of the backbone of extremists in Tripura, enabled the pro-people Left Front government to carry on massive welfare and development programmes with renewed vigour all over the state in multifarious sectors including education, healthcare, agriculture and communication bringing about a sea-change in Tripura in all spheres. The Left Front government thus came to be regarded as synonymous with peace, progress and prosperity in sharp contrast to the retrogressive ravenous and rapacious track-record of the Congress party, seriously aggravated by its alliance with the INPT, the political mask of the outlawed and anti-national extremists.
It is in this perspective that the historic turnout of the state electorate in the 10th Assembly elections in Tripura is to be viewed. This election saw an unprecedented upsurge of the people of Tripura to vote with a vengeance to make amends for the earlier high-jacking of the rural or remote area polls at extremist gunpoint on the one hand, and the earlier hoodwinking of a huge section of the urban people through campaign of maligning and misinformation.
The people had to confront yet another formidable odd in the form of a "copybook vote" claimed to be carried out by the Election Commission in Tripura in this election. Hardest hit were the female voters that had a vast presence in each polling booth. Although the tremendously complicated and time-consuming system in the name of "copybook vote" made a sizeable section of voters to leave the booths in disgust and despair, numerous voters, dauntlessly determined to exercise their constitutional right did not fight shy of even waiting in queues till midnight to cast their vote in several booths.
The democratic-minded people of Tripura will have to wait for another 12 days for the counting of votes slated for March 7, 2008.
LAST MINUTE DESPERATION OF EXTREMISTS
Four CPI(M) activists were abducted at gunpoint by extremists on February 21 from two remote villages of Chawmanu of Dhalai district. The villages are situated besides Gobindabari, where a total of 60 Photo Identity Cards have yet been snatched away by extremists since notification of the 10th Assembly election in the state. At about 9 a.m. yesterday, a group of around eight extremists of BNCT, outfit of the outlawed NLFT(BM), raided the villages and abducted four CPI(M) activists including a polling agent of CPI(M) candidate of Chawmanu constituency. The other three are the candidate’s nephew, the village committee chairman’s son and a village committee member. Incidentally, village committee is the village panchayat equivalent under Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council.
CPI(M) state secretariat member Gautam Das vehemently protested the violent atrocities of the extremist henchmen of the Congress-INPT combine in certain remote areas of the state. He said these are designed to secure a political mileage and it exposed the nefarious nexus a couple of days ahead of the poll. He asserted that the people of the state are determined to foil such terror tactics at any cost and form the 6th Left Front government with a most massive mandate.
Incidentally, about 50 CPI(M) activists and supporters were injured on February 20 in a violent raid at four remote villages of Khowai Sub-Division, West Tripura by extremist gunmen and Congress-INPT goons. Out of those injured, 28 people are now undergoing treatment in G B Hospital, Agartala with grievous injuries mostly head injuries. The villagers were also threatened with death unless they voted in favour of the Congress-INPT combine.
peaceful poll in TripuraHindustan Times, India - 24 Feb 2008Voting to elect a new government in the northeastern state of Tripura ended peacefully on Saturday evening with more than 80 per cent people exercising …
|
Calcutta Telegraph |
Pachauri bats for solar lightCalcutta Telegraph, India - 20 hours agoAt the launch of the department of biotechnology’s natural awareness clubs for Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura, Pachauri said it was a pity that the people in …
|
Central budget disappoints TripuraIndian Muslims, CA - 1 Mar 2008By IANS Agartala : The Left government in Tripura is disappointed with the budget for 2008-09, saying it has ignored the northeast. …
|
Tripura registers 80% poll turnoutThe Statesman, India - 23 Feb 200823: Tripura recorded a staggering 80 per cent turnout today in the Assembly elections which was peaceful with the ruling CPI-M, which went to the polls for …
|
Tripura witnesses record turnoutEconomic Times, India - 23 Feb 2008AGARTALA: Tripura has experienced an unprecedented turnout on Saturday’s polls to the 60-member state assembly which was by and large peaceful with no major …
|
Tripura records all-time high voter turnoutHindu, India - 24 Feb 2008Agartala (PTI): An all-time high voter turnout was recorded in Tripura assembly polls on Saturday with over 91 percent of the total 20,35877 voters …
|
NDTV.com |
Tripura goes to polls on SaturdayNDTV.com, India - 22 Feb 2008Tripura goes to polls on Saturday and the opposition Congress alleges that the Left is Tripura’s new royalty. However, when NDTV travelled to remote areas …
|
Tripura witnesses 80 per cent pollingHindu, India - 23 Feb 2008Agartala (PTI): Tripura recorded a huge 80 per cent voting on Saturday in the Assembly elections which was peaceful with the ruling CPI(M), which went to …
|
Over 80% vote in TripuraHindu, India - 23 Feb 2008GUWAHATI: Over 80 per cent of 20.35 lakh Tripura voters exercised their franchise in the Assembly elections on Saturday to decide the fate of 313 candidates …
|
Tripura polls peaceful, 80 pc turnoutIndian Express, India - 23 Feb 2008Agartala, February 23:Elections to the 60-member Tripura Assembly witnessed a massive turnout of voters — 79-80 per cent till 4 pm — on Saturday. …
|
