Disqualify turncoat candidate: Tripura CPI(M) 

Moboshar Ali is the BJP candidate from the Kailashahar constituency he won as a CPI(M) aspirant in 2018 

AGARTALA

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has sought the disqualification of Moboshar Ali, its MLA from the Kailashahar Assembly constituency, as a candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party, from the same seat in Tripura.

Mr. Ali had quit the CPI(M) and joined the BJP in New Delhi on January 28, hours before the saffron party announced its first list of candidates.

The CPI(M)’s Tripura State Committee on Tuesday wrote to the returning officer of the Kailashahar constituency in Unakoti district saying Mr. Ali should not be allowed to contest the election on a BJP ticket for flouting rules.

“Being a member of the Tripura Legislative Assembly sponsored by the CPI(M), unless he resigns from the Assembly, or he is expelled by the party, he may not be accepted as a member of any other party or an independent candidate,” the CPI(M) wrote.

As Mr. Ali has neither resigned from the Assembly nor from the CPI(M), under “no circumstances may he be treated as a candidate sponsored by the BJP” and should be disqualified for being a BJP candidate without a statutory legal requirement, the party added.