Tripura Congress Chief Resigns, Returns After High Command Push

Tripura Congress leader Pijush Kanti Biswas resigned as chief of the party's state unit and "retired from politics", according to a short tweet he posted Saturday afternoon.

Late on Saturday, AICC in-charge for Sikkim, Tripura and Nagaland, Dr Ajoy Kumar tweeted that Mr Biswas had decided to take his resignation back following a discussion with him. Dr Kumar said Mr Biswas would continue to serve the Tripura unit of Congress and lauded him for putting the party above his personal issues.

In another tweet, he added that he would soon meet the senior Tripura Congress leader to "resolve all issues".

The developments assume significance at a time when the Congress is trying to reclaim power in the northeastern states, starting with Tripura which votes for a new government in two years.

"With sincere gratitude I thank all Congress leaders, supporters for your cooperation during my tenure as TPCC President (acting). Today I have resigned from the post of President and retired from politics as well. My sincere gratitude towards Sonia Gandhiji," Mr Biswas tweeted earlier.

Mr Biswas also denied reports he might follow former Congress leader Sushmita Dev, who joined Bengal's ruling Trinamool this week. He told NDTV there was "no question of joining any other party".

"I have decided to resign from the post of President but am not leaving the Congress party... so there is no question of joining any other party at this moment. I have specified to the party high command why I have decided to quit," he told NDTV over the phone from Agartala.

Ms Dev - the ex-chief of the Congress' women's wing - joined the Trinamool in the presence of senior leaders like Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is Mamata Banerjee's nephew.

Ms Banerjee's party, boosted by a statement win over the BJP in the Bengal election, is working with poll strategist Prashant Kishor's I-PAC (which played a key role in her win) on expanding its footprint in the northeastern state ahead of the 2023 election.

Last week Trinamool workers and supporters took to the streets of Agartala chanting the "khela hobe" (game on) slogan as they urged leaders from the CPM and other opposition parties in the state to unite with them to stop the BJP.

The Trinamool made a similar call ahead of the 2011 Bengal election, when it brought down a Left government in power for over three decades. Several Left leaders switched allegiances then.

Mamata Banerjee has emerged as one of the stronger voices calling on opposition parties across the country to join hands to take down the BJP.

Last month she met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi for talks widely viewed as significant in this regard, and yesterday she was part of an online meeting of 19 opposition parties, including the Congress, called on to work towards the 2024 Lok Sabha election "in the interests of the nation".

Ms Banerjee underlined the need for every opposition party to be present at such meetings, "even those not allied with Congress" - a comment linked to absentees like the Akali Dal's, the AAP, and the Samajwadi Party and BSP from UP, where elections are due in a few months.