Tripura opposition parties withdraw CM boycott

AGARTALA - Tripura’s opposition parties Thursday withdrew their six-and-a-half month old boycott of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar over his remarks on the alleged links between terror groups and the state’s political parties.

On the last day (Thursday) of the three-week long budget session of the Tripura assembly, Sarkar told the opposition members: “We should forget and forgive all that’s matter happened previously. It (the boycott programme) is not good for anybody and healthy politics.”

Responding to the chief minister’s remarks, opposition leader (Congress) Ratan Lal Nath told the house: “We are also not willing to boycott the chief minister anymore and from the very first day we have been seeking the chief minister’s regret for his comments.”

The opposition Congress and its ally, the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) legislators, left the house a number of times during this session and previous assembly sessions as and when Sarkar stood up to reply in the house.

The opposition parties also refused to share the dais with Sarkar across the state during this period.

During a state assembly debate on Dec 16 last year, Sarkar, who also holds the home portfolio, had said: “The regional party - INPT - has a link with militant outfits. The Congress has a political alliance with the INPT. Therefore, the separatist outfits are getting indirect support from the main opposition party (Congress).”

Sarkar, in support of his remarks, had said: “In 2001, the INPT’s then elected executive member of the Tripura Tribal Autonomous District Council (TTADC) and other party leaders had sent 50 tribal students and youths to Bangladesh to take arms training there before joining terrorists outfits.”