Agartala: The CPM, the main Opposition party in Tripura, has said it will support the ruling BJP-IPFT combine in the state in any way that will save jobs of several schoolteachers who are now serving in ad hoc positions.

In a news conference here on Monday evening, CPM state secretary Bijan Dhar said the BJP should fulfil its pre-poll promises to bring ordinances to save jobs of 10,323 teachers.

"They said an ordinance will be brought. Let them bring an ordinance in the Assembly or Parliament. Let them place bills in the House or do anything which will help save jobs of 10,323 teachers by lawfully evading the Supreme Court verdict. We will support them," Dhar told reporters.

He said the CPM is ideologically opposed to the BJP, but will support them to help thousands of teachers who have served for years.

The teachers, numbering 10,323, whose jobs were terminated, include under-graduate, graduate and post-graduate teachers who were recruited in several phases since 2010. A supreme Court verdict in March last year said recruitment rules followed for them is faulty and said their jobs will be terminated after December 31, 2017.

The erstwhile Left Front government decided to recruit them in ad hoc positions for six months from January 1. Their service tenure is slated to end on June 30.

Dhar also criticised chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb for comparing his government's achievements with those of the erstwhile Left Front and said he is starting "a competition of report cards".

"The chief minister has claimed to turn Tripura into a model state in the next three years. It will take them two years to inaugurate all projects which were started by the Left Front government," Dhar said.

He criticised Deb saying he is "talking like Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee". Dhar claimed over 4,250 people were attacked in post-election violence in Tripura.

"FIRs were filed, but not a single accused was held. Two party workers were murdered, but the real culprits were not arrested."

Dhar criticised Deb to give Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the family of a youth who was "killed" in police custody in Kerala. Deb went to Chengannur in Kerala to join a campaign for a byeletion last week and announced the compensation.

Dhar claimed that Deb has violated the Election Commission's model code of conduct by granting compensation and added that he has committed "election offences".