Tripura is faced with “triple trouble” from the Congress, CPI(M) and Tipra Motha in the ensuing assembly elections, and only a double-engine BJP government can protect the state from it, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Sunday.

Shah also said that the Left, which betrayed tribals for long in Tripura, is now projecting a tribal leader as the chief ministerial face to “dupe” people.

“If you want to be rescued from this 'triple trouble', vote for the double-engine BJP government,” Shah told a tally here in Unakoti district.

Jitendra Choudhury is among the top CPI(M) leaders from the tribal community, and is being seen as a leading contender for the chief ministerial post in case the Left-Congress alliance comes to power in Tripura.

Shah also claimed that Communists earlier launched several attacks on Congress workers, but now the two have stitched an alliance ahead of the polls.

He said the coming together of the Congress and the Left was an indication they have conceded defeat to the BJP in the polls.

The CPI(M) and the Congress are jointly contesting the elections to the 60-member assembly, which will be held on February 16.

Shah alleged that people in Tripura had to turn to “CPI(M) cadres” for availing government services before, but the situation changed after the BJP came to power.

“BJP took initiatives to construct roads, provide facilities for clean drinking water and bring electrification in remote places, aiming at the holistic development of the poor, the middle-class and tribals,” he said.

The Union minister said that crime rate has reduced 30 per cent after the BJP assumed power in Tripura, where it also took measures to restore peace by bringing the NLFT insurgents into the mainstream, besides rehabilitating thousands of Brus in the state from Mizoram.

He assured housing for the poor by 2025 if the BJP is voted to power, and said every tea-worker family would be given 1,600 sq ft of land for building homes.

At another rally in Bishramganj in Sepahijala district, the home minister said voting for the “triple trouble” of Congress, CPI(M) and Tipra Motha will pave the way for the return of ‘jungle raj’ in Tripura.

“The Congress and Left regimes in Tripura were marked with multiple scams. The BJP government has ensured all-round development of the state in the last five years,” Shah said.

Mocking the Congress and the Left, the Union minister said there is no trace of the Communists across the world today, while the Congress has met with a similar fate in the country.

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