Pre-poll woes continue in Tripura congress

Agartala, Feb 8 (UNI) Pre-poll woes continued to haunt Tripura Congress, with internal squabbles creeping up over nomination of candidatess in six constituencies, delaying the campaign process.

Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee(TPCC) officials admitted that rebel candidates have filed nomination papers against the party's official nominees in all six assembly constituencies of 49, as rest 11 seats in the 60-member House was allotted to party's alliance partner INPT.

The party leaders have raised their voice against TPCC leaders and held the party leaders responsible for the situation. Former MLA and dissident congress leader Tapas De said, ''It is really unfortunate because we had good chances of winning all the six seats but now the CPM will win by default.'' According to him, Sukharanjan Das, a grocery shop owner of Ambassa filed his nomination for Surma constituency, Meera Das, a housewife and greenhorn in politics filed nomination in Shalgarah and Abdul Matin Choudhury in Kurti filed nomination as a congress candidate but it was rejected and now he became an independent candidate.

The Congress has also faced difficulties in Krishnapur and Pramodnagar because of the confusion over its alliance with newly-formed NCT. NCT leader and sitting MLA form the area Animesh Debbarma would be fighting.

The fight in Kanchanpur between Congress candidate Sanjit Reang and INPT candidate Drau Kumar Reang has led the situation into worst; Mr De said adding ''The dispute over who will contest the seat is yet to be settled.'' UNI BB LL rd 1344