Congress leaders demand President rule in Tripura, call BJP term 'demonic rule'

Tripura Congress in-charge Ajoy Kumar and MLA Sudip Roy Burman accused the ruling BJP government of carrying out attacks against Congress workers and leaders in the state.

New Delhi: The Congress party has demanded President's rule in Tripura over political violence and alleging atrocities on Opposition party leaders by the BJP government in the state. Congress leader and the party's Tripura in-charge Ajoy Kumar and Tripura PCC leader and MLA Sudip Roy Burman on Sunday addressed the media in New Delhi to highlight the issues being faced by them in the North Eastern state set to go to polls within the next four months.

The Congress leaders alleged that their party offices and even the private properties of leaders are being attacked by BJP functionaries in the state. "Senior Congress leaders, along with AICC in charges in Tripura, are being subjected to continuous life-threatening attacks and have suffered serious near-death experiences over the last few months. It is a grave situation in Tripura that the people of the country should be privy about, the systematic death of democracy taking place in the far North-East of our country. This is not 'jungle raj', at this point it has become 'rakshas raj' (demonic rule)” said Ajoy Kumar.

"This is not the first time when Congress is trying to bring into the notice of the government officials, institutions and the Central government, the systematic violence the Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee workers and senior leaders are being subjected to,” he said. Kumar further stated that the party had written a number of letters to officials concerned to look into the matter and take strict and necessary action on the perpetrators to prevent further such life-threatening attacks, adding that there have also been numerous requests made in said letters to ensure sufficient security coverage to party leaders, but to no avail.

"Sudip Roy Burman, our Senior leader and Congress Party Legislator in Tripura’s Legislative Assembly has been subjected to as many as seven life-threatening attacks over the last few months for which he has written numerous letters to the Director General of Police in the State, but unfortunately the situation has only worsened. No arrests have been made till date in all the cases." he said. Apart from President's rule, the grand old party has also demanded a sitting High Court judge to preside over hearings on all such attacks on opposition workers and leaders within the last five years. These include the burning of party offices as well as instances of physical harm.