Abhishek Banerjee is scheduled to address a rally in Tripura tomorrow (File)
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Saturday accused the Biplab Deb government in Tripura of making every effort to stop the party from expanding its base in the northeastern state, dubbing the state's recent move to make Covid tests mandatory for certain travellers as a tactic to stonewall its campaigns.
Taking note of the fresh spike in coronavirus cases in some parts of the country, Tripura has revised the guidelines, making Covid tests mandatory for those coming from a state that has more than one district with over 5% positivity rate.
It has, in particular, asked travellers from states such as Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Sikkim to furnish Covid-negative reports - not older than 48 hours - at Tripura's entry point.
Senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee claimed that the BJP government is scared of the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, and is using its machinery to stop his rally on Sunday.
"The BJP is scared of Abhishek. They are using coronavirus as a shield to stop him from addressing the people of Tripura. This shows they know well that the people of Tripura are no longer with the BJP," the West Bengal minister said.
The TMC is trying to gain a foothold in the state ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections.
Kunal Ghosh, the TMC's West Bengal spokesperson, alleged that many party workers have come under attack in Tripura over the past two months.
"If @BJP4Tripura and @BjpBiplab put half the effort into governance that they do into keeping @AITC4Tripura out of the State, maybe Tripura's people would have had access to basic amenities by now.
"RT-PCR test or not, come 2023, BJP will definitely be out of the state," Mr Ghosh tweeted.
Responding to the taunts, BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh claimed that the TMC was trying to "import the politics of violence" from Bengal.
"People of Tripura do not want the TMC. It is the TMC that is continuously meddling into the affairs of Tripura and trying to import the politics of violence from Bengal. The party is trying to destabilise the situation in Tripura," the BJP leader maintained.
Making light of TMC's assertions, BJP Bengal president Sukanta Majumder further said that the BJP does not need any Covid protocol to stop someone like Abhishek Banerjee, who is "not an important leader" anywhere outside Bengal.
"Given the current pandemic situation, RT-PCR test and Covid-negative report is a standard followed by the administrations all over the country, and the TMC is just politicising the matter," he added.