Tripura CM lashes out at tie-up with Cong in Bengal, says Left 'goat's third kid'

Agartala, April 28: The electoral tie-up between the Left and Congress has created ripples in Tripura, where the two sides are the main opponents. While many top Congress leaders in the north-eastern state, the only one ruled by the communists at the moment, has vehemently opposed the election strategy in Bengal to oust the Trinamool Congress (TMC) regime of Mamata Banerjee, the state's Marxist chief minister, Manik Sarkar, took a dig at his own party saying the Left was acting "like the thid child of a goat".

According to a proverb, a third child of the goat runs around for nothing as the first two feed on their mother's milk.

Sarkar, a senior member of the politburo, vented his disappointment on the Left's decision to form an alliance with the Congress at a party meeting here earlier this week.

Addressing a party meeting where senior CPI(M) leaders, including two MPs, were present, Sarkar said the Left has been caught between the Congress and BJP. "When we speak against the Congress, we find people voted for the BJP and when we are against the BJP, people vote for Congress. Our position has turned like the third kid of a goat where the two others (Congress and BJP) are feeding on the mother's milk and we, the third kid, gets nothing but keeps jumping for nothing," he said.

The communists in both Tripura and Kerala, another state going to polls this year, have been left in an uncomfortabel position as a result of the pre-poll alliance in Bengal this year. In both these states, the regional politics is dominated by the rivalry between the Left and Congress. While the two sides get an alternative turn in power in Kerala, the Left is in power in Tripura for 23 years at a stretch now.

The Congress in Tripura has also witnessed a major impact of the pre-poll alliance in Bengal with several top leaders of the party, including Opposition leader Sudip Roy Barman and other MLAs quitting as a protest.

While Gopal Chandra Roy has taken over as the new Leader of the Opposition, a major revolt is brewing in the party in the state. The BJP might ultimately gain from this, fear the grand-old party.

Oneindia News