E-Paper
Prashant Kishore’s I-PAC members to asked stay at Tripura hotel till Covid-19 test results
The team arrived in the state last week to assess the potentiality of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to expand its base in the state.
At least 23 members of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), led by political strategist Prashant Kishore, have been asked to stay put at a Tripura hotel till the arrival of their Covid-19 test reports, said police.
The team arrived in the state last week to assess the potentiality of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to expand its base in the BJP-IPFT ruled state that will go for assembly polls in 2023.
Police said that these people who came from outside the state a few days back were found moving at different places amid the corona curfew. Consequently, the police visited their hotel on Monday and inquired about the purpose of their visit.
All of them underwent a Covid-19 test and were asked to stay at their private hotel till they get a clearance from the health department, said a police official from East Agartala Police Station.
A person from the I-PAC said the team members were not given any reason for staying inside the hotel except that the order came “from the top”. The person added that the RT PCR tests are suspected to have been so aligned that the visiting team members could board their flights back to Kolkata and do nothing apart from that.
However, a state health department official said the team members violated the Covid-19 protocol on their visit to the state by not producing mandatory negative RT-PCR reports.
TMC, Tripura unit President Asish Lal Singh termed it as an attack on democracy. “The I-PAC team came here for a survey. The state government has put them under virtual house arrest as they are scared of their survey results. This is not the culture of Tripura and I condemn the incident,” said Singh.
The BJP didn’t comment on the issue yet.
