Mamata moving closer to CPI-M: Tripura TMC legislators

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee is moving closer to the CPI-M, Trinamool leaders said on Monday.

"Mamata Banerjee is gradually coming closer to the CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist). She undemocratically and unilaterally breaks relations with the five party MLAs in Tripura today (Monday)," party's Tripura unit leader Sudip Roy Barman told reporters in Agartala.

Accompanied by Trinamool MLAs, Barman said: "We have convened an urgent meeting of all state party leaders on July 5 to decide the future course of action.

"We resigned from the Congress for its electoral alliance with the CPI-M in West Bengal and now Mamata Banerjee is herself supporting Left-supported Presidential candidate," Barman said.

He said the six Trinamool MLAs decided not to support Meira Kumar as she is supported by the CPI-M. "We have not yet decided whether to join the BJP or not."

Meanwhile, Trinamool Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said in Kolkata that from now on the All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) had no relations with the five Tripura MLAs.

"Defying the party decision, the five MLAs supported the BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) Presidential candidate," he said.

Chatterjee said Sabyasachi Datta, the Trinamool member of the West Bengal Assembly, would look after the organisational affairs of Tripura.

Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary Ram Madhav and Assam's BJP minister Himanta Biswa Sarma have urged the six Trinamool legislators in Tripura to vote for Kovind.

Ailing Trinamool legislator Dilip Sarkar, now in Delhi for medical treatment, told IANS over telephone: "I am yet to take a decision to whom I should vote in the Presidential election."

According to media reports, all the six Trinamool MLAs are likely to join the BJP this month.

Six Congress MLAs led by Sudip Roy Barman resigned from the party last year and joined the Trinamool in protest against the Congress' electoral alliance with the Left in the West Bengal assembly elections.

Subsequently, the six MLAs were recognised by the Tripura assembly Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath as Trinamool legislators.

--IANS

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