Sarkar CPM's CM candidate

2018 election

From a correspondent 

Agartala, Sept 1:  deviation from the party’s longstanding policy, the ruling CPI (M) in Tripura has decided to project Manik Sarkar as its Chief Ministerial candidate for the forthcoming State assembly election scheduled to be held in February 2018.

Bijon Dhar, state secretary of the CPI (M) admitted that Manik Sarkar, who is going to complete his fourth term as Chief Minister, was reluctant to seek re-election but agreed following a party decision.

“He will contest, he will win and he will be the next Chief Minister,” Dhar said to media.

The deviation from the party’s longstanding policy of not projecting any Chief Ministerial candidate before the election assumes significance in view of the State’s changed political scerio, where the BJP has replaced Congress as the main opponent and  making all out effort to capture power.

Dhar made it clear that the party is hell-bent to use the clean image of Manik Sarkar, which has a major impact on the people of the State as well as outside.

However, the early announcement about party’s Chief Ministerial candidate appears to be an attempt to defuse a fissure among the people and especially within the party that Manik Sarkar may not seek re-election to become the Chief Minister for the fifth time.

The confusion was going on since the CPI (M) Central Committee denied its general secretary Sitaram Yeachury’s nomition in Rajya Sabha from West Bengal for the third time. Bijon Dhar admitted that there is a decision in the party against nomiting anyone for the third time but it is not being followed in any other election except Rajya Sabha.

He ruled out the possibility of an alliance with Congress in coming election as the party central committee has decided against having any alliance with this party.

Bijon Dhar exuded confidence that the Left Front government will return to power after the election and elaborated three reasons for that. These are that the leftists always remained with the people, secondly, it used the benefits of being in the government to expand the mass movements on various issues and it had projected an altertive economic policy against the anti-people policies being followed by the governments run by other parties, especially in Delhi.