Agartala/ Sonamura, Feb 05, 2023, TRIPURA TIMES Desk

Agartala/ Sonamura, Feb 05: It was May 1989. Manik Sarkar and several other CPM top leaders were trapped inside the party Office at Battala in Agartala which was surrounded by angry Congress supporters who were planning to set afire the party office and burn the leaders alive. 

The horrific and gruesome incident was somehow averted and all the CPM leaders and the party office were saved- the violent expression of aggression left a permanent scar on the minds of the communists and common people.

The memories of the hostile relationship between Congress and CPM, once again, came alive after the seat-sharing understanding between the two parties was inked ahead of the Assembly polls.

While simmering resentment among sections of supporters of both parties were reported, one of the leaders who were present in the May 1989 incident, Manik Sarkar made a reference to the violent past and fierce enmity between the two parties at a rally at Dhanpur Constituency from where Sarkar contested but this time preferred to stay away.

Addressing a gathering in support of his replacement at Dhanpur constituency, Kaushik Chanda at the Kanthalia area recently, Manik Sarkar said, “Kaushik Chanda’s father was killed during the Congress-TUJS regime. It was a political murder and Kaushik was a little boy at that time. Those who murdered Kaushik’s father assumed that killing that person would eliminate communists from Dhanpur – but that did not happen and today, Kaushik has emerged as the pole bearer for CPM at Dhanpur”.

After referring to the horror of the Congress-TUJS regime, Manik Sarkar said, there is no alliance between Congress and CPM. To oust BJP from power, only seat sharing was done.

Talking about violence during the last 5 years, Sarkar said, “Kaushik was attacked 17 times in the last 58 months. In some cases, goons tried to kill him, but failed”.

“At least Manik Sarkar recalled the brutal killings during the Cong-TUJS alliance, no other leaders are talking about the CPM activists who sacrificed their lives”, commented a veteran CPM activist of Kanthalia.