Tripura royal scion and state PCC chief Pradyot Kishor Manikya Deb Burman, who met Congress president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Monday, on Tuesday said the meeting was fruitful.

Deb Burman was accompanied by former Tripura chief minister Samir Ranjan Barman.

Deb Burman, who became the PCC president on March 2, said, “The Congress president welcomed the former Tripura chief minister back to the party and urged him to share his political knowledge and experience with party workers in chalking out strategies for the development of the Tripura Congress.”

Barman was the home minister in the Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti coalition government in the state from 1988-1992 and was the chief minister till 1993. He served as an MLA for several terms and as the Tripura PCC president till 2009.

Barman has been living as a political ascetic since 2009. He was suspended for six years from the Congress in March 2017 for alleged anti-party activities.

Soon after taking charge as the Tripura PCC chief, Deb Burman met Barman and welcomed him back to the party.

On alliance with the CPM, Deb Burman said, “No one from the CPM has approached me and there is no pressure on the Congress to have an alliance. So, there is no question of an alliance.”

BJP campaign

BJP general secretary Ram Madhav will discuss selection of candidates for the two Lok Sabha seats in the state, a senior party leader said.

Madhav will also hold talks with the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (INPT), the BJP’s coalition partner in Tripura which had recently announced that it would contest the election in the state alone, the leader said.

The BJP general secretary, accompanied by party prabhari Avinash Khanna Rai, will arrive here on Wednesday.

“Madhav, who is looking after Tripura’s party affairs, will check the party’s preparedness for the elections. Strategy for election campaign and selection of candidates for the two seats will be on the table when he meets the party leaders,” the leader said.

The BJP will contest both the Lok Sabha seats in the state, West Tripura and East Tripura, he said.

The INPT’s central executive committee meeting has announced that it will field candidates in both the seats.

Madhav is scheduled to meet an INPT delegation during his visit.

INPT assistant general secretary Mangal Debbarma said on Tuesday, “We want to contest at least one Lok Sabha constituency as the CEC has already given its nod. However, in politics nothing is impossible.”