Agartala, Feb 12 (PTI) Days after quitting the BJP to rejoin the Congress, former Tripura MLA Sudip Roy Barman on Saturday tore into the Biplab Kumar Deb government, asserting that the saffron party would fail to return to power in the state as the ruling dispensation “could not deliver” on any front.
Roy Barman also said that the Congress would leave no stone unturned to ensure that the BJP scored a “big zero” in the 2023 assembly elections.
The saffron camp, however, dismissed his assertions as “baseless”.
The former health minister, addressing party leaders and workers outside Congress Bhavan here, alleged that the BJP-led government “snatched away the democratic rights of people”.
“The election battle in 2023 will be liberating people from the clutches of the BJP government’s misrule. No one is untouchable in a fight. The Congress will do everything possible to defeat the BJP,” said Roy Barman, who joined the grand old party in Delhi on February 7 after quitting the Assembly membership in Tripura.
The former legislator, who was dropped as health minister in 2019, also said that the saffron camp looted votes to win elections.
“The BJP thinks it will continue to rule the state with its intimidatory tactics. But that won’t happen anymore as the Congress will put up a tough fight to foil their ill-designs,” he said.
Roy Barman also sharply criticized the BJP government for “deliberately” ignoring people’s woes.
“Tripura occupies the third place on the unemployment table. Several hundred posts remained vacant for years and there has been no initiative to fill them. What happened to the promise of 50,000 jobs every year as mentioned in the BJP poll manifesto? he sought to know.
The ex-minister, who had earlier quit the Congress in 2016 to join TMC and then crossed over to the BJP ahead of 2018 state polls, said that the law and order situation has worsened in Tripura over the past four years.
“As many as 517 people were murdered in the state in the past four years of BJP rule. There has been an increase in crimes such as abduction, dacoity and riots since 2018, he added.
Making light of the allegations made by Roy Barman, the BJP said that it was quite natural for him to come up with such statements, given the fact that he has just joined the Congress.
The law and order situation in Tripura has improved under the BJP rule as the government has adopted a zero tolerance policy towards any crime. It is natural for Roy Barman to raise allegations against the BJP-led government. People will give a fitting reply to him in due course of time,” BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharjee said.