Agartala: The Opposition Congress will contest all the seats in the September 20 bypoll, which fell vacant because of en masse resignation of the office bearers after the BJP-Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura took oath on March 9.

Addressing a news conference here on Monday afternoon, Tripura PCC president Birajit Sinha said, "The government should take the responsibility to maintain law and order during the election. If the democratic atmosphere does not go well during the election, we will not keep silent."

He also said the party has already started the process for selection of candidates at the block level. "We also started to declare the names of in-charges of Congress in all the blocks of the state for the September 30 bypoll."

Earlier on August 20, CPM state secretary Bijan Dhar said, "We are well aware that the state election department has taken initiative to hold the bypolls for the vacant posts in the three-tier panchayat bodies. We demand that before conducting the bypolls, the authorities concerned must ensure proper democratic atmosphere in the state, so that the Opposition parties could participate the elections in a peaceful situation."

He alleged that a large number of people's representatives had to resign after the BJP-IPFT government was formed in March because of huge pressure on them.

On another issue, Sinha said the party would submit a memorandum to Tripura governor Kaptan Singh Solanki on September 20 on Rafale aircraft deal.

"On September 20, we will organise a rally from Congress Bhawan here and will submit a memorandum to the governor as part of our nationwide protest. All India youth Congress president Keshav Chand Jadav and vice-president Srinibah B.V. will join the rally. We named this campaign Bharat Bachao Rafael Ghotala," he said.