Agartala, August 25:
CPI(M) national general secretary M.A. Baby on Tuesday sought to position the Left for a political comeback, asserting that the party would regain its lost ground even as he predicted that contradictions within the ruling BJP–TIPRA Motha arrangement would deepen in the coming days.
Speaking to reporters at Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport on his arrival for a three-day visit to Tripura, On Tripura politics, Baby directly targeted the BJP–TIPRA Motha relationship, claiming that contradictions between the two parties were already becoming visible and would intensify in the coming days.
Referring to confrontations during the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council elections, including physical clashes, Baby said the developments reflected growing differences within the ruling political arrangement.
“Problems within these parties will come out in the coming days,” he said.
Baby also criticised the failure to implement commitments made to Tripura’s indigenous population. His remarks come amid continuing demands from TIPRA Motha for implementation of the March 2024 tripartite agreement signed in New Delhi in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Against this backdrop, Baby asserted that the Left was strengthening itself through wider mobilisation and would regain political relevance in Tripura.
He said the Left’s Jantar Mantar agitation was part of a broader nationwide mobilisation involving workers, peasants, students, youth and women. Referring to workers’ movements in Tripura, particularly the mobilisation in Agartala, he said such struggles reflected growing collective action over livelihood and other issues.
According to Baby, the BJP’s political challenge would extend beyond electoral contests, with movements emerging across different sections of society.
“The Left is becoming strong in Tripura also, Kerala and onwards,” he said, projecting the Left as an important force in the country’s future political landscape.
Baby launched a sharp attack on the Narendra Modi government, declaring that its “last days are being counted” and citing recent mass movements and electoral setbacks as signs of a changing national political landscape.
“Mr Narendra Modi and the BJP rule, its last days are being counted,” Baby said, arguing that the BJP could no longer sustain its political dominance by keeping people “under fear”.
He cited the student-youth agitation against Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the BJP’s defeat in a Bihar Assembly by-election as “important indications” of the changing political situation. Baby said the student movement demanding Pradhan’s resignation had compelled the government to respond despite attempts to protect the minister.
He credited CPI(M)-linked activists, AISA and other progressive student organisations with playing an important role in the agitation, but said the minister’s resignation alone would not resolve the issue.
“The anti-student education policy of the BJP should be reversed,” Baby said, linking the agitation to what he described as broader opposition to the Modi government and its policies.
Baby also described the BJP’s Bihar by-election defeat as a political warning for the ruling party. He said the constituency had remained a BJP stronghold for around three decades and argued that the result demonstrated that the party’s established electoral dominance could be challenged.
Baby is scheduled to hold meetings with CPI(M) leaders and the state party organisation during his three-day visit to Tripura from August 25 to 27.
