Two days after Central of Bureau of Investigation (CBI) lodged an FIR against three leaders of the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) in cases of the brutal killing of two journalists, the regional party has taken the decision to not contest with its alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
The IPFT leaders though said they had no option but to take the decision following the BJP’s unilateral decision to nominate leaders of two Lok Sabha seats in the states without consulting the IPFT. The BJP however, appeared not to have been perturbed by this, its leaders saying the alliance with the IPFT had been formed only for the assembly elections earlier this year.
According to IPFT, BJP recently chose two leaders to monitor preparations for East Tripura and West Tripura seats without consulting them. Following this, the IPFT took the decision of fighting alone.
State BJP spokesperson Mrinal Kanti Deb said the decision would not affect their alliance in the state government and added that the state BJP head Sunil Deodhar had already mentioned earlier that BJP would contest alone in 2019.
