Agartala, July 28: Strongly condemning the alleged ‘detention’ of poll strategist Prashant Kishore’s I-PAC team, three Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders from West Bengal, who arrived in the city on Wednesday, said the ‘Khela’ (game) had already started in the state.
The three West Bengal leaders- Bratya Basu (Education minister), Moloy Ghatok (Law Minister), and Rajya Sabha MP Ritabrata Ghatok arrived in the state three days after the 23-member I-PAC team was put under detention by Tripura Police citing Covid protocols.
Addressing a press conference at Agartala Press Club, Basu criticized the role of the BJP government and said the ‘detention of the I-PAC members was a sign of fear of losing power’.
“The I-PAC members were detained in a hotel despite having corona negative certificates. Even an FIR was lodged against them, which is condemnable. This BJP led government in the state is suffering from trauma of insecurity and fear of losing power in the next assembly elections, so they did this heinous work”, Basu told the media.
As hinted by Basu, the TMC delegation was expected to stay in the state for three days. He also stated that TMC’s general secretary Abhishek Banerjee would also arrive in the state on Friday next while some other party leaders were expected to arrive on Thursday.
“The fight to oust BJP from power in 2024 polls has started from West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee is the only alternative in this fight. We are hopeful that TMC’s flag will rise in Tripura too,” said TMC MP Ritabrata Banerjee.
Ghatak said the BJP would not be successful in stopping the rise of TMC in Tripura’s soil by framing false cases.
The TMC leaders, however, maintained a soft tone virtually seeking support of CPI-M with an eye on the next assembly elections.
Meanwhile, senior political leader Subal Bhowmik, who is considered to be one of the key players behind BJP’s surge in Tripura before the 2018 assembly polls, held a meeting with the West Bengal TMC leaders in the city on Wednesday.
Speaking to the media, Bhowmik hinted that he was likely to re-join Trinamool Congress.
In reply to a query, he informed the media, “there was no serious talk on joining in the meeting. However, the future will speak.”
Meanwhile, all 23 members of I-PAC, who were allegedly put under detention by police following Covid restrictions for two days since Sunday night, had tested negative for coronavirus.
SDPO Sadar Ramesh Yadav confirmed that they were ‘not detained’ but asked to stay in the hotel until the test reports come.
“As soon as their Covid test results came negative, they were freed on Tuesday night itself. Some of them already went out of the hotel and roamed around on Wednesday,” the police officer said.
According to sources, while some members of the team would leave for Kolkata on Thursday, the others would stay here in the state and carry out their work.
Meanwhile, the latest input available with the source suggests that the I-PAC team was likely to knock the door of the Court on Thursday as some of them were reportedly summoned to appear before police for investigation.
According to the last information poured in, there was a deployment of police and TSR personnel in front of the city hotel where the I-PAC members were lodged.