Agartala: Six Congress MLAs in Tripura including former leader of the opposition Sudip Roy Barman today resigned from the party and joined Trinamool Congress, making it the principal opposition party in 60-member House.
All the rebel MLAs handed over their letter disassociating from the Congress to Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath.
Speaking to reporters, the Speaker confirmed that he had received a letter from Congress legislator Sudip Roy Barman, who he said was accompanied by three legislators.“The letter was signed by six Congress MLAs informing me that they have joined the
Trinamool Congress. I would call all the six Congress MLAs for individual hearing and verification of their signature. After consulting the rules and experts, I will take a final decision in this regard in a day or two,” Debnath said.
The six Congress MLAs who signed the letter include Barman, Ashish Saha, Biswabandhu Sen, Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, Pranjit Singha Roy and Dilip Sarkar.
Burman and 14 others were suspended by the Congress for ‘publicly maligning’ the image of the Congress and ‘anti-party’ activity in the first week of May. On April 7, Burman had resigned from the post of the leader of the opposition.
In the past, Sudip had written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi expressing the state unit’s distress regarding its alliance with the Left and sought her intervention. Barman’s son Sudip had also met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee last month immediately after her swearing in with a delegation of the rebel leaders, sparking speculations that the dissents may join the party.
Last month, two district presidents of the Congress party had also resigned from their posts in the protest against their party’s decision to tie up the with the Left parties in the West Bengal Assembly polls.
On Monday, another Congress legislator, Jitendra Sarkar, resigned from the Tripura assembly and said he would rejoin the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
In 2013 Assembly polls, the Congress had won 10 seats and the rest was bagged by the Left Front. The total strength of the Congress stands at 4 currently.
