Reports of large-scale violence by ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist cadres against Congress and Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura supporters has taken the shine off the Left Front's impressive victory in the just concluded assembly election in Tripura.
Despite Chief Minister Manik Sarkar's appeals, violence continues in all the four districts of the state and the opposition has charged policemen of being silent onlookers.
Alarmed by the arson and violence, senior Congress leaders, including Mani Shankar Aiyer, former chief minister Samir Ranjan Barman and two others called on Governor Lieutenant General (retd) K M Seth and sought his intervention.
Meanwhile, a post-mortem by the Congress has revealed that the Left Front successfully played on the fears of the non-tribal Bengali population and emerged victorious.
Despite a strong anti-incumbency wave against the Left Front, the Congress had to bite the dust primarily because of its alliance with the INPT.
The INPT, viewed as an overground wing of the militant National Liberation Front of Tripura, evoked strong reactions among the non-tribals, who voted en masse in the Left Front's favour just to keep the INPT out.
Says a senior Congress leader, on condition of anonymity: "The ruling CPI-M succeed in convincing the Bengalis that their existence would definitely be at stake if the Congress-INPT alliance came to power. As a result, the Left Front won easily."
The Left does not completely disagree. Chief Minister Manik Sarkar says: "To a certain extent the fear psychosis created by the INPT in the interior areas did more harm to them since people chose to vote against the Congress-INPT alliance. People have not forgotten how the INPT [in its earlier avtaar] had rigged the elections to the Autonomous District Council. This time, because of adequate level of security forces, rigging was prevented and that's why we won easily."
The fifth Left Front government -- third in succession -- in the state will be sworn in on March 7. The first sitting of the assembly will be held on March 13.
