In a major blow to the Congress in Tripura, six party MLAs have handed over a letter to Assembly Speaker Ramendra K Nath announcing their decision to disassociate from the party. The MLAs have decided to join the Trinamool Congress.
Among those quitting the party are former Tripura chief minister Samir Ranjan Barman and his son Sudip. All the six MLAs will join the Trinamool Congress after the end of Ramzan in July.
"I along with five other Congress MLAs and my father, former chief minister Samir Ranjan Barman, will join Trinamool Congress after the end of Ramzan next month," Sudip Roy Barman said.
"We want to fight the Assembly election in Tripura under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. In Tripura, Congress has lost all credibility after it entered into an alliance with CPI-M in West Bengal. How can you fight against CPI-M when you have an alliance with them in another state?" he said.
The development comes after TMC general secretary Mukul Roy held a closed-door meeting in Agartala with the six rebel Congress MLAs of Tripura to explore the possibility of inducting them into the party.
The MLAs whom Roy met had fallen foul of the Congress high command after they criticised the party leadership for entering into a tie-up with the Left in West Bengal saying it reflected badly on the party's position as the principal opposition party in Tripura.
The Congress high command had suspended MLA Sudip Roy Barman who led the five disgruntled legislators.
On Monday, the Congress suffered yet another blow with its senior leader Jiten Sarkar resigning as MLA without assigning any reason.
"The decision is personal. I will not say anything more," Sarkar, also a former Speaker, said. Sarkar had earlier said that he was asked by "some influential" TMC leaders of the state to join their party but he had declined.
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