AGARTALA, April 21 (TIWN): Former opposition leader Sudip Roy Barman in a reply to showcause notice to The AICC general secretary in-charge of Tripura, V. Narayanaswamy stated that the alliance between CPI-M and congress will not only hamper the congress party in Tripura but will also hamper the party in Kerela.

It is to be mentioned here that the AICC general secretary in-charge of Tripura, V. Narayanaswamy, issued a showcause notice to former leader of the Opposition Sudip Roy Barman asking him to explain his criticism of the party high command.

Replying to the showcause letter, Barman stated that he neither has anything against the conges high command nor have any interest to join any party. So the question of carrying propaganda against congress leadership is completely baseless.

He further stated that he never tried to lower the prestige of the congress party rather his objection and opposition to the alliance in the west Bengal have arrested the desertion of the party’s support base to other political parties.

However, he was further stick to his stand and stated that the alliance between CPI-M and congress for the WB polls will damage congress party not only in Tripura and Kerela but also at the national level.

Allegedly earlier Barman had lashed out at the Congress high command for its policies, its negligence of Tripura in wake of the debacle in the Amarpur byelection and in the state wide civic polls and its efforts to reach an understanding with the CPM for the Bengal Assembly polls.

He had followed this up by allegedly contacting senior Trinamul Congress leaders in Bengal in order to join the party. His close confidantes, Youth Congress president Sushanta Chowdhury and former NSUI president Vicky Prasad, had gone to Calcutta to meet the Trinamul leadership, who insisted that if they wanted to join the party, they must do so before the Bengal Assembly polls and campaign for its candidates.

Subsequently, Barman had resigned as leader of the Opposition and written a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi questioning the wisdom of forging an alliance with the CPM in Bengal.

The next day, Barman's associates - PCC working president and MLA Asish Saha and Chowdhury - resigned from their posts.

Narayanasamy, who is in charge of the party affairs in north-eastern states, told Barman that by criticising the party’s alliance with ten Left Front through the media, he deliberately acted in a way calculated to lower the prestige of the Congress and carry out propaganda against the party leadership. Barman, who is the opposition leader in the Tripura assembly, resigned as Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader in the assembly, protesting his party’s tie-up with the Left Front in West Bengal. In his resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he said the alliance would prove “harmful” to the Congress.