The Left Front will retain power in Tripura, winning more seats and votes in the next assembly elections due in February, a CPI-M leader said here on Saturday after a one-day review meeting of the party.

“CPI-M-led Left Front will undoubtedly retain power in Tripura in February’s assembly polls winning more seats and votes,” Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) central committee member Gautam Das told the media.

The Left Front in the outgoing assembly has 51 seats in the 60-member House, with the dominant partner having 50 seats.

Das said: “A large number of other party supporters are joining the CPI-M. In the last three months, over 3,335 people belonging to opposition parties joined the party. People are getting fed up with the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and the functioning of its government at the Centre.”

The Goods and Services Tax (GST), demonetisation and other steps of the central government were creating a havoc in the life of the people, he added.

Ahead of the assembly elections, the Tripura CPI-M’s state committee held a daylong review meeting and discussed party’s strategy for the upcoming polls.

Das said the formal elections campaign of the Left party would start from December 31, with a rally here on the day. CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D. Raja and Trpura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, among other leaders, would address the rally.

Das alleged that BJP for the past several months had been trying to create trouble and law and order problems to destabilise the peace ahead of the assembly elections in the state.

“The BJP has been backing tribal-based party IPFT (Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura), who are also creating huge ethnic problems and destabilising the peace in Tripura by demanding a separate state in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council areas,” the CPI-M leader said.

In support of their demand, the IPFT had blocked the vital National Highway-8, the lifeline of Tripura, and the lone railway line in the state for more than 10 days in July, causing acute shortage of essential items and hardship to the people.

Rubbishing media reports about any doubt among the Left parties, Das said the Left Front would unitedly fight the next elections to achieve victory and to form the eighth Left Front government in Tripura.

“As part of the conspiracies against the Left Front government, the allocation of funds meant for MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) has been drastically reduced and financing of various projects under the DoNER (Development of North Eastern Region) Ministry has also been slashed,” the Left leader added.