Six Congress MLAs From Tripura Resign, Join Trinamool Congress

The Congress now has only three legislators in the 60-member house.

In a major political development in Tripura, six Congress legislators switched allegiances on Tuesday and joined the Trinamool Congress.

Tripura Assembly Speaker, Ramendra Chandra Debnath told reporters that he had received a letter from Congress legislator Sudip Roy Barman, who was accompanied by three legislators.

Sudip Roy Barman who had been the leader of the opposition recently resigned from the post after protesting against the Congress-Left electoral alliance in West Bengal.

The letter was signed by six Congress MLAs informing me that they have joined the Trinamool Congress. I will call all the six Congress MLAs for individual hearing and verification of signatures. After consulting the rules and experts, I will take a final decision in this regard in a day or two.

Ramendra Chandra Debnath, Assembly Speaker

Besides Roy Barman, the five other Congress MLAs who signed the letter are Ashish Saha, Biswabandhu Sen, Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, Pranjit Singha Roy and Dilip Sarkar.

Currently the Congress has only three legislators in the 60-member house.

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).

Meanwhile, Tripura’s Congress president, Birajit Sinha urged the Speaker to enact the anti-defection law against the six Congress legislators.

In consultation with the party’s central leadership, Sinha suspended another party legislator Biswabandhu Sen for six years for “anti-party activities”.

(With inputs from IANS.)