New Tripura Cong Chief Invites Former Leaders to Rejoin Party

Agartala: The newly-appointed Congress president in Tripura, Pradyot Kishore Debburman on Sunday invited all former party leaders to return to the Congress and said everyone would be given due respect.

Debburman, who was the working president of the Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC), was appointed as the president of the TPCC, by AICC chief Rahul Gandhi on February 25. Debburman on Saturday met expelled leader and former chief minister Samir Ranjan Barman and asked him to get back to the party.

Barman did not join any party after his expulsion from the Congress in March 2017.

He accepted Debburman's invitation and rejoined the party on Saturday.

A large number of leaders, led by former Pradesh Congress president Sudip Roy Barman, defected to the Trinamool Congress in 2016 and further changed camp to join the BJP in 2017.

The new TPCC president said everyone in the party would be given due respect and in return they would also work with honesty and integrity.

"I believe that no problem should be there if we give everyone their due respect. I would like to organise a meeting of the former chief minister Samir Ranjan Barman with party president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi. I shall also talk to all other leaders and take their advice in this regard," he said.

Debburman also said he would try to strengthen the organisation in Tripura with the participation of the educated and honest people.

"It would be my endeavour to build a strong organisation with the participation of youth, women, educated and honest people, bring back the leaders who remained out of the party and give them due respect," he told reporters.

The Congress, which had 10 MLAs in the 2013 state Assembly, drew a blank in the February 18 elections was reduced to a party with less than 2 per cent votes.

Debburman, who is also a member of AICC and in-charge Sikkim said building 'BJP Mukt North East' in the Lok Sabha elections is his aim.

Pradyot also claimed that people, especially youths are frustrated due to unfulfilled poll pledges made by the BJP and the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) in the state.

The BJP-IPFT government assumed office on March 9, 2018.