BJP-IPFT alliance trying to disturb communal harmony: Sarkar

Tripura Chief Minister and CPI(M) Politburo member Manik Sarkar said today that the BJP- Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) alliance was trying to disturb communal harmony and peace in the state.
The coming assembly election will be "a battle for unity and integrity against forces that seek to divide the state and create unrest", he told a rally in Hapania, about 15 km from here.
The IPFT, he alleged, was a "faade of the banned insurgents" which demanded a separate state of 'Twipraland'.
The BJP and the IPFT have recently forged an alliance in the poll-bound state and the tribal party agreed to set aside its demand for a separate state and work as per a common minimum agenda agreed by the two parties.

Sarkar alleged that the BJP and the RSS were trying to "subvert" communal harmony in the northeastern state and were "instigating" communal forces such as the IPFT.
"It has become their agenda in the coming assembly elections in Tripura," he added.

Sarkar, who has been the Tripura chief minister for four consecutive terms, said the CPI(M)'s battle was not merely for wining elections in the state but for "ousting the BJP from power in Delhi".
"We have to ensure victory in the coming polls here for our goal to oust the BJP at the Centre and form the government there," he added.

The northeastern state goes to polls on February 18 and the results will be out on March 3.