The Trinamul Congress alleged that a 23-member team of its poll consultant Prashant Kishor had been put under house arrest at a hotel in Agartala by the police of the BJP-ruled Tripura since Monday early morning.

The police said they hadn’t detained the members of the I-Pac (Indian Political Action Committee) but got the team tested for Covid-19. “The team members had come from outside and were freely moving across Tripura. Once the test reports come in, they can move around,” a West Tripura police officer said.

Trinamul’s Tripura president Ashish Lal Singh said he was ashamed and shocked over the “house arrest” of the members of the I-Pac.

“This is not the culture of Tripura. I am shocked and ashamed. They have been under house arrest since 1am (on Monday). This shows that the ruling BJP is scared,” Singh told The Telegraph.

He said the IPAC members were divided into six teams and had visited all eight districts of Tripura for an independent political survey.

Trinamul national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee took to Twitter to slam the “house arrest”.

“The fear in @BJP4Tripura before even @AITCofficial stepped into the land, is more than evident! They are so rattled by our victory in #Bengal that they’ve now kept 23 IPAC employees under house arrest.…”