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Agartala, March 1: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi and AICC general secretary in-charge of Tripura Luizinho Falerio will arrive here tomorrow morning to hold intensive discussions with the 10 newly elected Congress MLAs for filing a detailed report to AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi elaborating the reasons for the debacle suffered by the party in the just-concluded Assembly elections.
Gogoi, who had been made chairman of the regional screening committee for finalising nominations, practically dissociated himself from the process after shortlisting of names of candidates. The AICC subsequently finalised the list after making changes but Gogoi still remains in charge of Tripura.
Official sources in the state secretariat here said a communication has come this morning from Guwahati stating that the Assam chief minister will arrive here on a “non-official” programme and return by evening.
Though PCC president Sudip Roy Barman and leader of the Opposition Ratanlal Nath made themselves incommunicado after the reverses in the election yesterday, re-elected party MLA and former PCC president Gopal Roy said Sudip Roy Barman had filed letter of resignation yesterday to the party high command owning moral responsibility for the debacle and in the tomorrow’s meeting, Gogoi and Falerio will discuss the issue threadbare.
“Gogoi had borne important responsibility for the just-concluded Assembly elections in Tripura as chairman of the screening committee and the party’s central leadership is keen to know his assessment of the situation; Falerio is coming on a routine visit as general secretary in-charge and will also file a report to the AICC,” said Roy.
However, Congress’s media cell member and former MLA Tapas De said Shakil Ahmed, the other AICC general secretary, is also expected to come on a stock-taking visit. De said the AICC had attached a lot of importance to the Assembly elections in Tripura, hoping to improve the party’s performance.
“Rahul Gandhi himself had addressed six meetings across the state on two consecutive days while Union finance minister P. Chidambaram had also arrived to address two election meetings, endorsing the populist manifesto released by the Congress before the elections; naturally they will seek answers and accountability for the debacle suffered,” said De.
In the outgoing 60-member state Assembly, the Congress had 10 MLAs and its ally INPT one but in yesterday’s results the Congress won only 10 seats and the INPT failed to win a single seat.
“The overall tally is one less at 10 but three of the sitting MLAs — Manoj Deb, Subal Bhowmik and Surajit Dutta — have lost this time; the AICC is trying to ascertain the reasons for the debacle suffered only a year ahead of the Lok Sabha polls,” said De.
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