AGARTALA, April 17 (TIWN): Cornered by the party for his Rose Valley tag, the once editor of “Daily Deser Katha”, gautam Das wants Jiten Das out of contention from the Town Pratapgarh Assembly seat, believes the political pundits here. The fact that Gautam Das was being troubled by Jiten Das in getting his candidature for the seat was made felt at a press conference addressed by the CPI(M) spokesperson on Thursday afternoon. It may be mentioned here that the Town Pratapgarh Assembly seat fell vacant after the death of sitting MLA Anil Sarkar recently. Both Gautam Das and Jiten Das’ name came for discussion within the party after the Rose Valley episode gave much trouble to the party recently. Both the veterans were trying hard to garner support for themselves in securing the party’s nomination for the reserved assembly constituency. In one side, Jiten Das was backed by mentor Pabitra Kar in getting the seat while, Gautam’s name was pushed up by former Loksabha MP Khagen Das informs confidential party sources.

Jiten Das, a former Congress heavyweight in the Sadar Division joined the CPI(M) during 1994 with active backing from CPI(M) strongs like Pabitra Kar. Later, Mr. Das was elevated in the party and was offered the Sabhadhipati’s post of West Tripura Zilaparishad. During the last Assembly election in 2013, the Congress defector was given CPI(M)’s nomination from the Barjala reserved seat but failed to Jiten Sarkar, a former heavy weight of CPI(M) who contested the election on Congress ticket.

The death of veteran CPI(M) leader Anil Sarkar and the subsequent down fall of Gautam Das within the party owing to the alleged Rose Valley link, Gautam had to be given a sttlement somewhere and so the Party’s stronghold Pratapgarh seat was considered for him. But with active backing from mentor Pabitra Kar, Jiten Das was also able to make his candidature forward for contension in the party.

The death of Jiten Das’s wife made open the feud between Gautam and Jiten over the candidature for the Pratapgarh assembly seat. The fact that Jiten Das’s claim of his wife’s death as suicidal and Gautam Das’s claim of the death to be of murder was contradictory. Two leaders opting for two different views within the party, which is very uncommon in the CPI(M) was seen with much suspicion by the analysts here.

The political analysts believe that Gautam wants to make his road clear for the Assembly ticket by sidelining Jiten over the issue of his wife’s death. Meanwhile police investigation(?) is going on to nab the culprits, but the police have not made any headway till filing this report.