Manik Sarkar

Agartala, Nov. 16: The Congress will organise a rally here tomorrow demanding the resignation of Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar, who has been under attack of late from both the Opposition and a section of the media for the non-performance of his government.

The rally comes in the midst of a statewide campaign by the CPM to take the issue to the people and expose the Congress and the media. The Tripura CPM is deeply concerned over “consistent personal attacks” on the chief minister.

Party state secretary and central committee member Bijan Dhar has condemned the “personally motivated attacks” on Sarkar and said the CPM would “take the issue to the people” and expose the Congress and a “section of the media”. “The campaign will continue till we fully expose the hollowness and mischievous motives of the Opposition and the media,” said CPM office secretary Haripada Das.

However, justifying the campaign, former Congress MLA and party spokesman Tapas De said it would be “totally unrealistic on the part of CPM to expect that the Opposition or the media would not say anything against the chief minister”. He said, as head of the government, the chief minister could not shirk his moral responsibility for the failures.

“To cite an instance, the Rs 3.7 crore scam in the school education department happened under his nose and yet he has taken no action. The former Bishalgarh BDO, Bimal Chakraborty, responsible for a 17-crore scam, who surrendered in court, is known to be close to the chief minister,” said De.

Referring to the regular review of all departments made by the chief minister, De said Sarkar “never” reviews the functioning of home department, which he holds. “The CPM is a disciplined party and dissension never comes out but almost all the ministers resent constant reviews and meddling. He is misusing his position as politburo member to keep everyone in the party down,” he added.

He said a woman was tortured and molested in broad daylight by CPM supporters on October 6 but Sarkar took no action. “The governor had called on the woman and her husband and directed the IG (law and order) to take action and the 20 accused were arrested. But what did our chief minister do? He did not even find time to speak to the woman,” De said.

He also questioned the removal of former finance minister Badal Chowdhury, a post which he had held for 16 years. He was removed only because the chief minister was keen to run the finance portfolio through his “proxy” Bhanulal Saha, De said. “Bhanulal may be a good leader at the panchayat level but he will not be able to run the finance department.”

Despite his “image”, the chief minister was a “colossal failure” in running the administration, De said. Dismissing the charges made by CPM as “puerile and hollow”, he said the Congress would continue its campaign.