Poll debacle: Two more Tripura Congress leaders resign

Two senior Congress leaders have resigned from the party, blaming the state leadership for the party`s electoral debacle in the February 14 polls.

Agartala: Two senior Congress leaders have resigned from the party on Saturday, blaming the state leadership for the party`s electoral debacle in the February 14 polls.

After resigning from the party, Tripura Congress general secretary Subal Bhowmik and party`s senior leader Sebika Reang, while talking to media separately, blamed the state party chief Sudip Roy Barman and senior leader Ratan Lal Nath, besides some members of the party`s central leadership, for the electoral failure. Bhowmik announced the formation of a new party - Tripura Pragatishil Gramin Congress (TPGC) - while Reang, who was replaced by another candidate at the last moment before last month`s polls, joined the ruling CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist). Former Congress legislator Bhowmik lost the February 14 Assembly Elections (in the Sonamura constituency), in which Congress managed only 10 seats in the 60-member house, facilitating the CPI-M-led Left Front to retain power for the seventh time, gaining 50 seats. "The new party - TPGC - would be given an organisational shape at a massive rally in Agartala on April 03. Many senior Congress leaders would join the new party," Bhowmik told reporters here. Former opposition leader and ex-minister Jahar Saha has also earlier this month blasted the state leadership for the crushing failure of the Congress in the polls. Saha, while talking to reporters, flayed state Congress president Sudip Roy Barman and former opposition leader Ratan Lal, saying their "treachery" led to the electoral rout. "Barman and Nath sold the Congress to the Left parties in exchange for cash and other benefits," Saha claimed. He said "unworthy people" were fielded as candidates by the Congress in the elections. IANS