Factional squabbles continue in Tripura Congress

Agartala, Jan 02 (UNI) The Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) continued to be rocked by factional feuds over the leadership issue even as the Left Front launched its election campaigns in the state ahead of the Assembly elections.

TPCC leaders said here today that all the 13 Congress Legislators, including TPCC president Samir Ranjan Barman and former Tripura Chief Minister Sudhir Ranjan Majumder, were presently at New Delhi to hold talks with AICC general secretary in-charge of the Northeast Prithviraj Chauhan, to sort out the leadership issues.

Nine of the 13 MLAs had been demanding the removal of Samir Ranjan Barman from the post of TPCC president. However, they had failed to arrive at a consensus over a candidate for the replacement.

Dissident spokesman and former MLA Tapas De said the AICC general secretary was seeking the opinion of the Legislators, both individually and in groups, to sort out the leadership issue and formulate a strategy for the upcoming Assembly polls.

''The AICC is currently working on a formula to unify the party and if that requires a change of guard, it will be taken care of and the question of alliance with regional forces will also be taken up,'' Mr De said.

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