Royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarma on Friday announced that his party TIPRA Motha will contest Tripura assembly election alone and not in alliance with either the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the Left-Congress alliance, turning the polling into an interesting multi-polar contest.
In a message, the royal scion, said he decided to contest the election alone after the BJP-led NDA government refused to give him a written assurance on his party’s demand for a separate state for indigenous people of Bengali dominated Tripura, two days after he and other party leaders held a discussion on the issue with Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi.
“No alliance – my heart does not agree and so I have made my decision that I cannot accept New Delhi’s offer! Jitega toh jitega harega to harega (win or lose) but one last fight to karke rahega! (will surely happen). I can’t betray our cause and our people,” Pradyot wrote on his Twitter on Friday.
He also shared a video message saying that he does not want to be an opportunist to say something that would not happen just before polls. “Since 1977 every regional party (representing indigenous people) brought some agreement from Delhi before elections. And after elections, they didn’t get anything,” he said in the video.
Pradyot, earlier proposed to the BJP’s ally the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) to merge into one party and held series of talks with the party. The IPFT didn’t agree and is likely to contest in alliance with the BJP.
Pradyot told reporters on Friday that his party will contest in 35-40 seats, indicating that he would field candidates in non-tribal seats. “Our list will be announced today. It’s more important to fight for community than to remain in fear throughout the life,” he said.
In the 60-member assembly, 20 seats are reserved for scheduled tribe having nearly 13 lakh population, as per 2011 Census report. Since 1977, no tribal political party has contested elections without forging alliance with a national party. In 1988 assembly polls, the Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti (TUJS) came to power with Congress as alliance partner and the IPFT forged alliance with BJP to firm government in 2018.
With the emergence of the TIPRA Motha as a new entrant in the Tripura politics, the ruling BJP and the oppositions CPI(M) and the Congress have attempted to forge alliance with the party. The Left and the Congress appealed to the TIPRA Motha to contest jointly, but Pradyot maintained that his party will form alliance only after getting written assurance on his demand.
Even after the Left declared candidates for 47 seats leaving 13 seats for the Congress, it was still open for discussion with Pradyot for an alliance. “We have appealed to him to contest jointly to dethrone the BJP from power. We shall talk again to him on the issue. If he decided to contest alone, it will only benefit the BJP,” said veteran CPI(M) leader Pabitra Kar.
On his decision to contest alone, political analyst S. Bhattacharya, said TIPRA Motha may not do well. “A party representing tribals can do well only if they have an alliance with a party representing the majority population. The move to go alone work well for Pradyot,” he said. The TIPRA Motha is in power in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) since 2021.
