CPI(M) Delegation Meets Tripura CM Over Post-Poll Violence, Seeks Compensation for Affected Families

New Delhi: According to a report published in EastMojo, a six-member delegation of the Opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M) led by politburo member Manik Sarkar on Monday met Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha and flagged 2,016 incidents of post-poll violence, including five deaths, and sought his intervention and proper compensation for the affected families.

A host of senior leaders, including CPI(M) legislature party chief Jitendra Choudhury and state committee members Pabitra Kar and Manik Dey, accompanied Sarkar during the meeting and urged the CM to stop the “unabated attacks and assaults on the opposition party supporters”. The members raised concerns over the alleged incidents of continued political violence in the aftermath of the state assembly elections held in February this year. 

Former CM and CPI(M) politburo member Manik Sarkar briefed the media later in the afternoon and said, “Elections are over now. The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) has formed a government. It has to ensure that all organisations, parties, and individuals can carry out their democratic activities, failing which peace and stability are impossible. The means of livelihood of the common man are under attack, including attacks on rubber plantations, agriculture fields, water bodies, etc. We sought to draw the CM’s attention to these facts.”

According to a report published in The Indian Express, Sarkar also said that the 2023 assembly elections were held amidst a proactive role of the Election Commission of India, owing to which violence was relatively low in the adjoining timeframe. “However, he alleged that violence was perpetrated in renewed vigour, and reports of 2016 incidents of violence were collected from across the state since the poll results were announced this year. This purportedly includes 817 incidents in the last 28 days,” the report said.

Referring to the attack on the multi-party MP team that physically inspected some of the violence-ravaged areas of the state, Sarkar said, “The team of MPs who had visited Tripura after the elections compiled as many as 1,199 incidents of violence in their report that was submitted before the Governor. They had put forth some specific suggestions before the state's governor, but we don’t know what efforts had been made on his part. It has been 28 to 29 days since they left the state, and in this intervening period, we haven’t witnessed any change in the situation. In today’s memorandum, we have listed as many as 2016 incidents of violence, which means a total of 817 cases occurred in this period. The Chief Minister has informed us that he had instructed his party cadres to abstain from any kind of violence, and the police had also been directed to play an impartial role while dealing with any breach of law.”

Further, the former CM also informed the media persons that these ghastly acts of violence had also killed five persons belonging to his party. “One of our party workers was lynched to death in Kalyanpur after the polls. Apart from that, four more people lost their lives in the trauma of the violence they had witnessed practically after the elections. The Chief Minister has assured us that he will look into all our concerns, and hence we shall wait for his intervention,” said Sarkar.

Sarkar also told reporters that CM Saha had said his government stresses taking an impartial role in violence and illegal activities but said the CM’s assurances aren’t reflected on the ground. “We have urged the CM to communicate with administrative and police officials at the state, district and other levels and ensure that the administration maintains an impartial view of the people. He promised to take a proactive role in dealing with all these issues,” the former CM said that the BJP state president is taking an active role in ensuring that the ruling party rank and file maintains a democratic environment.

He added that the Left party would provide constructive cooperation to the state government inside and outside the assembly, and the next course of action for the party is to wait since the CM has taken charge of the new government only a month ago. “If he is unable to normalise the situation, we shall then decide on an action,” he said.

Reports of clashes and arson poured in from across the state since the elections were held on February 16. The intensity of the violence increased after March 2, when the results were announced. People sustained injuries in extensive violence, including assaults on a joint parliamentary delegation that visited Tripura to assess violence in the aftermath of the elections.