Newsmaker: Manik Sarkar has perhaps earned the right to criticise

Tripura is not a rich state and such an example does seem to help the CPI(M) win elections

Take a look at the income tax returns filed by candidates ahead of the Tripura legislative assembly election in 2013. Manik Sarkar was and is one of the poorest — he lives on a monthly salary of Rs 5,000, given to him by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI (M). He has no house of his own. What he earns as the chief minister, he gives to the party.
 
His predecessor as CM in a CPI(M)-led government, Nripen Chakrabarti, was no different. In the 1980s, visitors who went to see him had to sit on an upturned