The AICC on Tuesday appointed Pijush Kanti Biswas as the stand-in president of the Tripura PCC.

A press release from the AICC, signed by its general secretary K.C. Venugopal, said: “The Congress president has appointed Pijush Kanti Biswas as the acting president of Tripura PCC with immediate effect till a full-term president is appointed.”

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Biswas said owing to support and dedication of Congress workers, the party now had more than 27 per cent vote share. He said his priority would be to bring back all those who had either left the Congress or were away from active politics.

The Congress leader said: “Many people, who were disappointed with the Congress joined the BJP. The youths are unemployed now. There is no food or water and no proper education system in the state. I do not want to say that ‘We are coming to power’, but people want to throw the BJP out of power.

“I have started contacting all the booth-level and district-level party presidents and instructed them to strengthen their booth committees. I have been asked by the AICC to place a road map of the party in the state. We will sit and discuss with all senior leaders of the PCC so that the party can function smoothly in the coming days.”

Biswas said the AICC had given him the responsibility of the Tripura PCC and it would be his prime duty to stop factionalism. He appealed to

Congress supporters and workers not to indulge in groupism and instead work for the party.

On September 24, then PCC president Pradyot Kishore Manikya Deb Burman resigned from all posts of the Congress in protest against alleged pressure mounted on him by the AICC to withdraw the case he had filed in the Supreme Court demanding implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Tripura.

As the central leadership of the Congress is opposed to NRC implementation, Pradyot resigned saying ethnicity was much more important then the party’s position and he would keep on fighting for the NRC to safeguard the rights of the indigenous people of Tripura.

He said he was at loggerheads with some Congress leaders over the NRC issue and alleged that AICC in-charge of Tripura, Luizinho Faleiro, pressured him to withdraw the petition which he had filed in the Supreme Court.