Cong ties up with TUJS, TNV for Tripura polls

The Opposition Congress has entered into an alliance with the Tripura Upajati Juba Samity and the Tripura National Volunteers for the next assembly election, scheduled for March 1998.

In a joint statement issued on Thursday, Tripura Pradesh Congress president Gopal Roy, TUJS president Rati Mohan Jamatia and TNV president Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl said the seat-sharing arrangement would be finalised after a meeting with the Congress leadership next month in New Delhi.

The TNV, an underground outfit which became a tribal-based party, has formed an alliance with the Congress and the TUJS for the assembly election for the first time.

The TUJS has had electoral alliances with the Congress since the 1983 assembly election but had parted ways during last year's Lok Sabha election, when the Congress was dissatisfied with the selection of candidates.

The Congress has 10 MLAs and the TUJS has one in the 60-member state assembly.