Tripura BJP MLA Joins Congress At Mega Rally Ahead Of Assembly Elections

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and veteran tribal leader Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, who resigned from the Tripura Assembly today, joined the Congress at a rally organized by the Opposition ahead of Assembly elections in Tripura.

Mr Hrangkhawl was the fifth BJP MLA and the eighth from the BJP-IPFT (Indigenous People's Front of Tripura) ruling alliance to quit since last year.

Of the eight legislators, three have joined Congress, four moved to the tribal-based Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA), headed by former royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman and one MLA joined the Trinamool Congress.

Along with Mr Hrangkhawl, BJP leader Rajkumar Sarkar and Trinamool Congress leader Rakesh Das also joined the Congress at the mega rally today.

"Some BJP leaders called Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the father of the nation, others call RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, and tomorrow they will make Union Home Minister Amit Shah "another father of the nation," Congress in-charge for Tripura, Ajoy Kumar said while addressing the rally.

"BJP has so many fathers but we have only one father of the nation - Mahatma Gandhi," the Congress leader added.

He urged people to defeat the BJP in the upcoming elections to prevent atrocities against women, provide jobs to the youths, and protect the state.

Mr Kumar alleged that the BJP is giving money to young people to join in their "Bike Bahini" to unleash terror and attack the Opposition party leaders and workers.

The ruling party's only task is to spread communal hatred and it's been done with a motive to make sure people could not raise basic issues including jobs, and price rise, Mr Kumar alleged.

"If Rahul Gandhi can walk hundreds and thousands of kilometers why can't the party workers do this?" the bureaucrat-turned-politician asked.