Agartala: Tripura's principal opposition CPI (M) on Monday dashed off a letter to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Kiran Gitte apprising him of about a purported meeting that took place between a BJP minister and the election officials. The party also demanded an inquiry into the episode to find out the truth. Referring to news published in a vernacular daily, CPI (M) state general secretary Jitendra Chowdhury in his letter reportedly stated, "On January 14, Agriculture Minister Pranajit Singha Roy, along with Abhishek Debroy, Gomati District President of BJP, interacted with some election officials in a secret meeting at 'Bhubaneswari' room of Udaipur Circuit House.
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Prior to this meeting, as desired by the Minister, all other boarders of the Circuit House were asked to vacate the room and from noon on January 14, the Circuit House was practically barred from the entry of any other persons except the persons selected to join the meeting. He alleged that minister Pranajit Singha Roy skipped his scheduled programme of the opening ceremony of 'Tirthamukh Mela' on the same day to hold this secret meeting. "After the meeting, the Minister did not make it public for what purpose he arranged this meeting and why he needed to maintain so much secrecy about it.
"While the state is waiting for the declaration of the Assembly elections by the ECI, at this moment, in no circumstances minister can call the designated election officials to a secret meeting. Thus, this secret meeting created a lot of confusion in the minds of the rational-minded people about the transparency in the conduct of the ensuing Assembly elections," he alleged.