The Communist Party of India-Marxist has requested Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha to shift an idol of Lord Ram installed in a public space where the statue of a communist leader once stood.

Jitendra Chaudhury, the CPI(M)’s State Secretary and the Leader of the Opposition in the 60-member Assembly, said unknown persons had installed an idol of Lord Ram at the Srirampur tri-junction in Unakoti district’s Kailashahar town on the night of April 11.

The idol was placed on the pedestal of a rotary where the statue of former Deputy Chief Minister Baidyanath Majumder was previously installed.

The pedestal had remained vacant since the communist leader’s statue was demolished after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2018.

“You must be aware that the life-size statue of Baidyanath Majumder, one of Tripura’s most prominent political leaders, was installed in 2012 on popular demand. Miscreants pulled down the statue after the 2018 Assembly elections and threw it into the Manu River,” Chaudhury wrote in a letter to Saha on April 13.

“Former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb had condemned the vandalism and assured us that the statue would be reinstalled, but he did not honour his commitment,” the newly elected party Polit Bureau member added.

Chaudhury said the installation of Lord Ram’s idol on the pedestal once occupied by a communist leader’s statue was against Tripura’s culture and tradition.

“I request to relocate Lord Ram’s idol to a suitable place or temple and reinstall the statue of the people’s leader that Baidyanath Majumder was,” he wrote, pointing out that the communist leader had dedicated his life to the cause of the people.