AICC's efforts to unite Tripura Congress

Agartala: In a bid to end the infighting within the Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC), Union Minister of State for Planning and Programme Implementation and AICC leader V Narayanswami is scheduled to address several meetings in the state today.

TPCC officials said Mr Narayanswami would arrive here from New Delhi to hold a meeting with the tribal leaders of the party in Teliamura in West Tripura. In the evening he would interact with TPCC leaders regarding political strategy ahead of election to Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council (ADC) and urban local bodies.

Mr Narayanswami would also discuss the issue of appointing the next president of TPCC. The party has been suffering from dissidence over incumbent president and former Chief Minister Samir Ranjan Barman, which was destabilising the Congress in Tripura, senior Congress leader and former MLA Tapas Dey said.

A section of Congress leaders, including seven MLAs out of 10 in the Tripura Assembly, directly lodged complaint against Mr Barman with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the AICC and they have been fighting for his removal for the past three years.

TPCC leaders also alleged that Mr Barman had fixed a programme for Narayanswami in Teliamura to avoid his dissidents and critics, and added that Mr Barman was trying to cancel the scheduled meeting of the entire PCC with Narayanswami and instead convene a meeting of only the PCC executives to keep at bay his dissidents and critics.