CPI-M doesn't accept Tripura civic polls verdict: Manik Sarkar

Former Chief Minister and the party's politburo member Manik Sarkar, on Tuesday, said that the CPI-M does not accept the verdict of the recent civic polls in Tripura as the elections to the 20 urban local bodies were conducted 'fraudulently' and hence 'not fair'.

Agartala: The CPI-M does not accept the verdict of the recent civic polls in Tripura as the elections to the 20 urban local bodies were conducted "fraudulently", hence the results of the polls were "not fair", former Chief Minister and the party's politburo member Manik Sarkar said on Tuesday.

Sarkar said that the ruling BJP along with the administrations turned the November 25 civic elections into a "farce".

"As the elections were totally manipulated, there is no value as to who finished is first, second or third," Sarkar told the media when asked about the performance of the Trinamool Congress.

He said that due to the unprecedented terrorisation of the opposition leaders and workers, including candidates, before the elections by BJP workers and goons, the environment was not at all conducive to conduct the elections freely and fairly.

"On the day of voting, BJP workers captured the polling stations, evicted the election agents belonging to the opposition parties and even attacked the candidates, including women nominees. Along with the people, the CPI-M would face the challenge ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls," said Sarkar, who had served as the Chief Minister of the state from 1998-2018.

The CPI-M leader also slammed Narendra Modi for hailing BJP's performance in the civic polls, calling it 'shameful' on the part of the Prime Minister.

"Modi does not know what is going on in Tripura. Democracy is under attack in the BJP ruled state. People are now turning vocal against the misgovernance of the BJP," Sarkar said.

Replying to state Law and Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath's accusation of violence and rigging during elections in the Left regime, the former Chief Minister said that if any incident happened at that time, the police and the administration had taken action.

Nath on Monday alleged that the CPI-M and Trinamool Congress "confused the people with baseless allegations of violence".

"There was no violence, no murder, not a single incident of bomb blast (during the civic polls). But during the Left rule, violence during and after the elections was a common phenomenon," the minister had said.

The ruling BJP captured all the 20 civic bodies, including the politically important Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC), thus making a clean sweep in the civic polls, the results of which were declared on Sunday.

The BJP candidates won in all the 51 seats in the AMC and in most of the seats in the 19 other municipal councils and Nagar Panchayats. While, the CPI-M won three seats in three municipal bodies in Kailashahar, Ambassa and Panisagar, while the Trinamool Congress won one seat in Ambassa municipal council.

The BJP secured over 59 per cent votes, followed by the Left at 19.65 per cent, the Trinamool Congress at 16.39 per cent and the Congress at 2.07 per cent.

IANS