AGARTALA: In a significant development, former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Thursday said that his party had “no objection” if like-minded forces unite to defeat the BJP in the 2023 assembly elections.

Sarkar was replying to a question pertaining to Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman’s clarion call to the opposition parties to think beyond the party lines for the larger goal of defeating the ruling BJP.

Sarkar said, “If he succeeds in uniting the opposition parties we have no objection to this. We are doing our level best and we also want more and more people to mobilize with us against this fight”.

According to Sarkar, the Left workers across the state are the worst victims of the political violence reported during the by-elections.

“Despite the fact that the Left failed to win one seat out of the four constituencies, Left workers are being targeted by the miscreants backed by the ruling party. Such tactics indicate that the Left is still a formidable force,” he said.

The former Chief Minister was addressing the media at the party state headquarters in Agartala shortly after two separate delegations of Left MLAs met Tripura Governor as well as DGP to register complaints.

The Left MLAs said that more than 150 incidents of poll-related violence were reported in the state during the recent by-elections.

Sarkar also slammed Tripura DGP for the state police’s utter failure in maintaining the law and order situation in the state.

“The Police did not take any action against the ruling party sponsored hooligans who prevented the voters from reaching the polling station, inflicted injuries on the opposition party voters, and involved in arson, looting and ransacking,” said Sarkar.