GUWAHATI: Pradyot Kishore Deb Barman, who resigned from the Congress in Tripura three days ago, has rubbished the party’s charge that he will float a regional political party to favour the BJP.
Congress leader in Tripura Subal Bhowmick on Thursday claimed that Deb Barman had reached an understanding with the BJP’s central leadership to form a new political party to help the saffron party.
He claimed that Deb Barman’s mother Bibhu Kumari Debi had met BJP president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi recently. The meeting, he claimed, was arranged by Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
The 75-year-old Bibhu Kumari Devi had served as a minister in Tripura from 1988-1993. Deb Barman said his mother had not been to Delhi in the past 20 days.
“I don’t take his (Bhowmick’s) words seriously. As of now, I am not joining any political party. I am also not thinking of floating a regional party,” Deb Barman told this newspaper.
“He said my mother met Amit Shah. She has not been to Delhi in past 20 days. The only person who met Amit Shah is Subal Bhowmick himself,” Deb Barman added.
He had filed a petition in the Supreme Court last year seeking the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Tripura, much to the chagrin of some Congress leaders, particularly the party’s Northeast in-charge Luizinho Faleiro, who asked the former to withdraw the petition or step down as Tripura Congress chief. Subsequently, Deb Barman resigned from the primary membership of the party.