AGARTALA: Assam finance minister and convener of Northeast Democratic Alliance (Neda) Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday alleged that the situation in Tripura is worse than Bihar where 86% of the total crime committed is against women and the figure is rising every day.Before leaving the state after his two-day visit, he told the media that a tribal girl was murdered after being raped on June 7 in chief minister Manik Sarkar's constituency. But till date, Sarkar did not visit the family and none of the accused have been arrested."Sarkar created a false image of honesty and good governance, taking advantage of poor attention of the national media. We shall make efforts to expose the true face of Sarkar and his party at the national level," he alleged. He appealed to six Trinamool Congress and three Congress MLAs of Tripura to cast their votes in favour of BJP presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind as a first step towards united fight against the Left Front in the state."BJP has no MLA in Tripura but it should not mean that the ballot boxes for presidential election from the state go empty. I, therefore, appeal to opposition members to make a beginning by voting for BJP," he said. He added that BJP's current phase of campaigning across the state would soon come to an end but the next campaign would start after the presidential election with an effort to consolidate the anti-Left votes."We are certain that CPM will not be voted back to power in Tripura. It is just a matter of time only," he said. Himanta added that the Sarkar-led government has become nervous by the overwhelming response of people to BJP.Referring to a latest exchange of letters between Tripura health minister Badal Chowdhury and Union minister of state for health Anupriya Patel, Himanta said Patel, in a letter to the state health minister on May 19, had expressed her willingness to visit Agartala on May 27 to lay the foundation of the proposed super-speciality hospital at Agartala Govt Medical College. But Chowdhury rejected it by writing a letter to her saying, "I will not be at the station on the date. Moreover, it is not the practice in the state to lay the foundation for such projects. Once the project is successfully completed, we may jointly celebrate its inauguration." Himanta added that this is an utter lie on the part of the state government as the chief minister himself is attending foundation laying ceremonies of even private hotels."This is the position of the Left Front government. It reject generous central offers to keep ammunition dry for false and misleading propaganda," said Himanta.

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