AGARTALA:
Infighting in the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spilled out in the open after a letter written by 15 senior leaders asking the state party president to resign from the post went viral on February 20.
The BJP leaders, including Minister Ram Prasad Paul, on February 16, had shot a letter to the state BJP president, Manik Saha seeking his resignation from the post claiming that the party has suffered under his leadership.
“We the state-level senior leaders regret to inform you that in your 26-month tenure, the party has suffered severely in almost every mandal of the state. Owing to that, the moral of the workers, panchayat members, and MLAs has gone down and are willing to leave the party,” the letter read.
The leaders claimed that after Saha became the chief of Tripura BJP in January, 2020, in almost every mandal, parallel organisations are running between two fraction groups of the BJP, and it is embarrassing for the party.
In some cases, the police had to intervene to stop workers from fighting in public, the said in the letter.
“Things have gone this bad and yet, you neither cared to visit any of the mandals and districts personally to evaluate what was happening, nor offered any solution,” the leader alleged in the letter.
They also hold Saha responsible for losing in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) election which was held in April, 2021.
The leaders claimed that Saha became president by violating the party’s constitution where it is clearly mentioned that “nobody can become president without direct office-bearer experience of at least 10 years”.
“Manik ji please vacant your chair for larger interest of the party. We need a competent, experienced person to take over as BJP Tripura president in this critical hour. Remember, without any proper election and by depriving competent, experienced and capable senior leaders, the party selected you as the Tripura president. So, please step down from the post…,” the letter further stated.