Dismissing the CPI (M)'s allegation that Tipra Motha had a "secret understanding" with the BJP in the Tripura assembly polls held earlier this year, Leader of the Opposition Animesh Debbarma claimed that his party lost several seats because of the Left party.
Debbarma was referring to the triangular fight between the BJP, CPI (M)-Congress combine and newly formed Tipra Motha.
In the elections held in February, the BJP had won 32 seats in the 60-member House while its ally, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), managed to bag one.
On the other hand, the CPI (M) and the Congress, which fought the battle together, won 11 and three seats respectively, while the Tipra Motha emerged as the main opposition party by winning 13 of the 42 seats it contested.
"We lost many seats in the assembly polls because of the CPI (M). The ruling BJP also lost a few because of the triangular battle," he said.
Asked about veteran CPI (M) leader Manik Sarkar's claim that Tipra Motha had a "secret understanding" with the BJP to help the saffron party win the election, Debbarma said, "I respect Manik Sarkar who had ruled the state for 20 years as the chief minister. But people say that after 70 years of age, a man starts behaving like a child… I have seen my parents had the same tendency." In the assembly polls, the CPI (M), which dominated tribal politics for several years in the northeastern state, could not win a single ST reserved seat, which was seen as a major factor for its crushing defeat.
Out of 20 ST reserved seats, the Tipra Motha won 13 while BJP and IPFT won six and one seat respectively.
Criticising the CPI (M), Debbarma said the Tipra Motha did not even field candidates in the September 5 bypolls in Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Sepahijala district, but even then the Left party failed to win even a single seat.
"The CPI (M) faced a humiliating defeat in both the seats," he added.
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