Tripura: CPM accuses BJP of giving away gifts ahead of elections, says party involved in many scams

Agartala: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is giving away electronic gadgets to voters in Tripura before the assembly polls, a CPM leader alleged, a charge denied by the BJP. “To oust Left parties from power in Tripura, the BJP has been plotting various conspiracies. The saffron party is trying to buy voters by giving electronic gadgets like mobiles and computers, as well as two-wheelers, to them before the assembly elections,” Communist Party of India-Marxist Tripura State Secretary Bijan Dhar told the media on Monday evening. [caption id=“attachment_3747167” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] “The BJP-led government at the Centre and various states are involved in many corruption cases and scams,” he added. In a two-day state committee meeting in Agartala on 30 and 31 July, the CPM discussed the decisions of the three-day party central committee meeting held in New Delhi on 24 to 26 July. The meetings also discussed the next assembly polls in Tripura. Tripura, one of the two states (other than Kerala) where the CPM-led Left front is in power along with other Left parties, goes to polls in February 2018. Dhar, also a member of the CPM central committee member, said the BJP governments have been posting RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) men in important places including Rashtrapati Bhavan, Election Commission and the army. The Left leader, accompanied by another CPM central committee member Gautam Das, said that the party would launch a two-week campaign from 15 August to highlight a six-point demand that include waiving of farmers’ loans, enactment of right to sale of foodgrains in minimum support price, and to provide jobs to unemployed youth. BJP refuted the allegations and said Tripura’s voters are “very much conscious, they are unpurchasable”. “We are not giving any electronic gadgets to anyone. Only motorbikes are given to BJP activists for organisational work. Such motorbikes are given to party members in other states too,” Tripura BJP spokesman Mrinal Kanti Deb said.