More Tripura Congress leaders quit over alliance with Left in Bengal

Hours after Tripura's Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Sudip Roy Barman resigned over his party's alliance with the Left Front in West Bengal, four other Congress leaders on Friday quit party positions on the issue.

Tripura Congress' working president Ashish Saha, state Youth Congress president Sushanta Chowdhury, West Tripura Lok Sabha constituency Youth Congress President Viki Prasad and East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency Youth Congress chief Rantu Deb resigned from their party posts.

They sent their resignation letters to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Tripura's CLP leader Sudip Roy Barman, who is also the opposition leader in the state assembly, on Thursday resigned from his post protesting his party's tie-up with the Left Front led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in the West Bengal assembly polls.

"Congress' alliance with the Left parties in Bengal would be a far-reaching negative impact both in state and national level. Most Congressmen are upset over this unacceptable electoral tie-up," Saha, one of the 10 Congress legislators in the state assembly, told reporters.

"We would be the true anti-Left group in Left ruled Tripura," Saha added.

Barman, who sent his resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and also to Tripura assembly Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath on Thursday, had earlier sent a note to Sonia Gandhi in February arguing against the alliance with the Left Front in West Bengal, saying it will prove "harmful" to the Congress.

Meanwhile, Tripura Congress president Birajit Sinha and some others party leaders said they would abide by the decision of the central leaders about the alliance with the Left parties.

"We will abide by the decision of the central leadership taken over the issue. Congress leaders' resignation from their party posts are unfortunate," said Sinha, also a sitting MLA and former minister.

Political circles said that some other Congress leaders close to Barman and Saha might quit their party posts on the same issue and would either form a new party or join the Trinamool Congress headed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.