Agartala, Feb. 16: The BJP in Tripura is on the verge of a split following the inclusion of tribal-based Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) in the NDA. State BJP president Ranajay Deb had firmly opposed BJP?s electoral alliance with INPT, citing the party?s alleged links with the banned NLFT militants.

However, the INPT leadership approached Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee in Calcutta and sought an appointment with BJP general secretary Pyarelal Khandelwal in Delhi.

Despite grave reservations expressed by the state BJP president, who was also present in Delhi at that time, BJP...

IMPHAL, Feb 16 ? Manipur Food and Civil Supply Minister Ph. Parijat Singh whose house was attacked yesterday by militants, today alleged that separatist United National Liberation Front (UNLF) had demanded Rs 30 lakhs from him. Singh said the UNLF insurgents had given him an extortion demand notice of Rs 30 lakh about a month ago with a warning of dire consequences if the money was not paid, he told PTI here.

Unidentified militants had attacked Singh's residence yesterday with a powerful grenade which did not explode. It was later defused by the experts. Singh said his family members received...

IMPHAL, Feb 15 ? With the Lok Sabha election round the corner, the political parties in this tiny State which have only three MP seats in the both houses of the parliament particularly the major partners of the Manipur Opposition Democratic People's Alliance (DPA) BJP, Manipur People's Party (MPP) and Federal Party of Manipur (FPM) are most planning to field their own candidates . Similarly the same story holds true for the two years old ruling Secular Progressive Front (SPF) coalition, whose two partners, the CPI and the Congress are also intent on fielding their own candidates. In short...

GUWAHATI, Feb 16 ? The North Eastern Council (NEC), now a regional planning body, wants that the amount slashed from its current year?s annual plan outlay should be restored to it, said NEC chairman and Governor of the State Lt Gen (Rtd) Ajai Singh here today. He was addressing a press conference here this afternoon to apprise the media of the issues being discussed in the forthcoming 49th meeting of the NEC at Shillong.

The Central Government had slashed an amount of Rs 104.71 crore from the approved budget amount of Rs 500 crore of the NEC for the fiscal 2003-04. Though the NEC is yet to...

NEW DELHI, Feb 16 ? The possibility of an alliance between the BJP and AGP has receded with the national party?s central leadership today maintaining that it would go all alone in Assam. Talking to newsmen after the BJP Parliamentary Board meeting, general secretary of the Party Pramod Mahajan said that there will no alliance in Assam. However, he added that in other North Eastern States, the Party may go in for alliance in one or two seats.

The clarification by the BJP?s central leadership came even as it asked all its State units to get into election mode and convene State Election Committee...