The news of the 23-member team of poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s company I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee) being detained by Agartala police went viral on social media yesterday. Busting the misinformation, the Tripura government has issued a clarification saying that the members were held to undergo the RTPCR test mandatory for visitors as per the Covid-19 guidelines.
This comes after the Trinamool Congress cried vendetta against the company that led them to win the 2021 West Bengal state assembly elections. “This is shameful. The IPAC team came and from night they are undergoing verification and they are almost in house arrest. Is the BJP scared of this democracy?” asked Ashish Lal Singh who has recently been made the TMC state president for Tripura.
As per reports, the I-PAC team is currently in Tripura to conduct baseline studies ahead of state assembly elections. They already met some influential politicians including BJP leaders in the state and are planning to conduct perception study.
“Our people have been literally put under house arrest for what reason we don’t know. We are looking into the matter,” claimed the I-PAC team.
A senior official from the Chief Minister’s Office, in an interview with the India Express, however, clarified that the I-PAC team was asked to stay indoors at their hotel since they are in a large group and the government wants to avoid any unwanted spread of Covid-19.
Commenting on the misinformation, Tripura West SP Manik Das revealed, “They are around 22 people of IPAC team. They had been visiting various places around Agartala city. Now Tripura is under a partial lockdown. And people visitors arriving at airport must carry COVID test report. We have only asked them to undergo RTPCR.”
https://twitter.com/rohanduaT02/status/1419748535394701317?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“Results of their(I-PAC members) RTPCR test will come tomorrow. They said they were here for some research-related work that is being investigated. After getting COVID test results & outcome of probe, decision will be taken on their release,” Das added.
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1419701445561970691?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwTripura police in a quote to Rohan Dua- a Times of India journalist said, “No FIR has been registered yet. Matter is under investigation. We are also checking if there’s any violation under Epidemic Diseases Act, Disaster Management Act.”
https://twitter.com/rohanduaT02/status/1419752763831947283?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“7 of them came on Jul 20 & other five came later. They visited several places,” they added.
TMC blames BJP
Pinning the blame on BJP, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee tweeted, “The fear in @BJP4Tripura before even @AITCofficial stepped into the land, is more than evident! They are so rattled by our victory in #Bengal that they’ve now kept 23 IPAC employees under house arrest. Democracy in this nation dies a thousand deaths under BJP’s misrule!”
https://twitter.com/abhishekaitc/status/1419645564849778690?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwTMC allegedly believes that the BJP is “scared” of its party expanding base across the country.
Prashant Kishore had said he would quit ‘this space’ (political consultancy) after TMC’s win in West Bengal but had not made his next move clear since then. Denying claims of joining politics and wanting to explore an alternative career, Kishore was seen meeting NCP supremo Sharad Pawar regularly in the recent past.