Tripura Cong chief may quit before polls

◗ Mr Deb Barman may also meet Congress president after the party chief returns from Meghalaya on Wednesday

Days before Tripura goes to polls on February 18, the state unit of the Congress is in trouble with its state working chief Pradyot Manikya Deb Barman on his way out of the party. Sources said that Mr Deb Barman is unlikely to join the BJP, but may contest as an independent backed by the NDA.

Mr Deb Barman, a scion of the Tripura royal family, had met the BJP’s Hemanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday, and this led to rumours that he is about to quit the Congress.

Sources said that the BJP, which is looking for a foothold in the northeastern state that has been a Left bastion for almost three decades, has offered Mr Deb Barman a Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress is trying to address the grievance of Mr Deb Barman related to intra- party friction. He had, earlier, conveyed his reservations about the Congress “going soft” on the Left in Tripura.

Mr Deb Barman, who flew down to Delhi on Wednesday, is learnt to have been offered a “bigger” role in the party’s central unit which might be that of an AICC

general secretary. However, he is not keen on it, sources said.

Mr Deb Barman may also meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi after the party chief returns from Meghalaya on Wednesday night, source said. been

“My family has the associated with Congress for generations. I am a Congressman at heart. But I need to fight the Left,” he told this newspaper.

Sources said that the Tripura leader has had a running feud with senior Congress leader C. P. Joshi who is in- charge of the state’s affairs.

Mr Deb Barman is said to be keen on a tie- up with the Trinamul Congress in the state and wants West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to campaign for the party.

But the central leadership failed to take the TMC along after offering a “paltry” five seats to the ruling party from West Bengal. Though the Congress central leadership maintained that he is merely trying to “bargain”, his move to the other camp would be a big moral victory in the state for the BJP.