Tripura's Congress chief, INPT President file nominations

Agartala, Jan 30 : The Presidents of the opposition Congress' state unit and tribal outfit INPT on Tuesday filed their nominations for the February 18 Assembly polls, while the ruling CPI-M changed one candidate.

In a surprise development, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders on Tuesday night held a closed-door meeting with Congress Tripura unit Working President and former royal family scion Pradyot Kishore Deb Burman at the latter's palace here.

Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee chief and former Minister Birajit Sinha filed his papers from his old Kailashahar seat in northern Tripura.

Sinha, elected to the Assembly five times since 1988, later told the media that the Congress is the only alternative to the ruling Left Front led by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in Tripura.

Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) President Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl filed papers from Ambassa. Former militant turned politician Hrangkhawl was elected to the Assembly for three consecutive terms in 1998, 2003 and 2008.

INPT in association with another tribal-based National Conference of Tripura (NCT) has fielded 14 candidates and announced to nominate more candidates if there is no electoral alliance with the Congress and other parties.

CPI-M Central Committee Member Gautam Das said here on Tuesday night that the Left Front has nominated Nimal Biswas in Khowai in western Tripura in place of Biswajit Datta, admitted to hospital few days back due to serious illness.

Biswas is a former State Secretary of CPI-M's student wing Student Federation of India.

After his meeting with Assam Minister and BJP incharge of Tripura elections Himanta Biswa Sarma and party's central observer Sunil Deodhar, ex-royal Deb Burman told the media that it was a "courtesy call and nothing political". 

"However, I sincerely want the Left parties to be ousted from power in polls," Deb Burman said.

"We want to see Pradyot Kishore Deb Burman in the Rajya Sabha," Sarma told the media at the royal palace in presence of Deb Burman. 

Elections to the 60-member Tripura Assembly will be held on February 18.