Presidential Election 2017: Six Tripura MLAs to meet Ram Nath Kovind in Guwahati tomorrow

Agartala: The six Trinamool Congress legislators shown the door by party supremo Mamata Banerjee for extending support to NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind will meet him in Guwahati on Thursday, one of the lawmakers said on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_3775729” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Ram Nath Kovind. PTI[/caption] “Following invitation from the BJP, five of us will meet Kovind in Guwahati tomorrow (Thursday). One MLA, Dilip Sarkar, told us on phone from Delhi that he will try to attend the meeting,” said MLA Ashish Saha, who resigned as TMC state president on Wednesday. Sarkar is in the national capital for medical treatment. Another legislator Sudip Roy Barman said these lawmakers will chalk out their future course of action this month after holding another meeting. According to media reports, all these Trinamool MLAs, along with other party leaders and workers, are likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party in July. The sixth MLA has already joined the BJP. Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee on Monday said in Kolkata that the party will have no relations with the five Tripura MLAs, who held a meeting at the TMC headquarters on Wednesday. MLA Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, who resigned as TMC legislative party leader, said, “We earlier resigned from the Congress for its electoral alliance with the CPM for the West Bengal assembly elections. Now, Mamata Banerjee is herself supporting the Left-supported presidential candidate (Meira Kumar).” He said they will not support Meira Kumar as she is supported by the CPI-M. “We have not yet decided whether to join the BJP or not.” The six Congress MLAs, led by Sudip Roy Barman, resigned from the party last year and joined the Trinamool. Subsequently, these MLAs were recognised by Tripura assembly Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath as Trinamool legislators. Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress has appointed its West Bengal MLA Sabyasachi Datta as observer to look after organisational affairs in Tripura in place of party vice president Mukul Roy.