SONAMURA, WEST TRIPURA, Feb 11: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today urged the people of Left-ruled Tripura to vote for the party in the February 14 Assembly polls for a ‘direct relation’ between Delhi and the state for its development.
“There is a government between Delhi and people of Tripura which eat up all the money for development. We want to set up a direct relation between the people of Tripura and Delhi, which is possible if you bring in Congress at the helm of affairs here,” he told an election rally here.
“People have brought changes in Kerala and West Bengal and it was also possible in Tripura,” he said.
Tripura has been under Left Front rule for the two decades and if it wins this time it will be its fifth straight term in power.
For the Congress, people are the first priority and then the party, while for the CPI-M, the party is their priority and people are secondary. “We want to bring in a change of this partisan system,” he said.
Elucidating this, Gandhi said the shop where he drank tea during his visit to Kerala was vandalised by CPI-M activists though the owner was from that party.
He referred to his experiences in China and said the Communists there are liberal and have accepted globalisation, which is the reason behind that country’s advancement.
“The difference between the Communists of China and Tripura is that the ones here do not want globalisation and development,” he added.
Gandhi, who was originally scheduled to campaign only today, will be staying back in Agartala for campaigning in two other places tomorrow.
“My mother could not visit your state because she is ill and told me to fulfill her task. So I will campaign in other places of the state tomorrow,” he said.
He will campaign in the state capital Agartala and in Kamalpur, near Ambassa in Dhalai district where Congress President Sonia Gandhi was scheduled to address rallies yesterday.
If the Congress-Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) alliance comes to power in the state, Gandhi said, allowances for the unemployed will be given and employees will get their salary according to the sixth pay commission and food security for the people will also be ensured.
The Centre, he claimed, had expressed its keenness to introduce salary structure for Tripura government employees at par with the central government, but the state government did not pay heed to the proposal.
“If Congress-INPT comes to power there will be no party office between the government and the people because it will be a people’s government”.
Besides, the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council will enjoy full power if the state government is changed, he said.
Tripura Pradesh Congress President, Sudip Roy Burman and AICC General Secretary Luizinho Faleiro accompanied Gandhi. (PTI)
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