Tripura: Poll Pot Heats up; CPI-M, Cong Set to Join Hands to Oust BJP; Tipra Motha Feelers to IPFT

New Delhi: Politics in the small North Eastern state of Tripura is heating up with the Assembly elections due in February this year. While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is pushing all its top leaders and resources into motion to retain the government, which has seen two Chief Ministers in five years of its rule, the Opposition, too, seems to be in an aggressive mode, tying up alliances to keep the BJP at bay.

The BJP had come to power for the first time in the state, in alliance with the separatist Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), trouncing the Left government that had been ruling for 25 years.

However, this time round, the Opposition seems to be getting its act together to put up a joint fight to oust BJP from power. On Wednesday,  Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury confirmed a “secular” electoral alliance with the Congress and also expressed his party’s keenness to have a pre-poll alliance with the popular Tipra Motha, formed in 2019 by former Congress leader and Tripura’s royal scion, Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarman.

According to a report in the Times of India, Yechury said the formal alliance with the Congress would be announced this weekend. Yechury was speaking with reporters in Agartala. Mukul Wasnik, Congress observer for the Tripura polls, was also in Agartala.

Yechury reportedly said that a “seat sharing” formula would be worked out soon, and added that the CPI-M’s Tripura state committee was also in favour of having a pre-poll alliance with Tipra Motha.

“We consider the coming polls to be crucial not only for Tripura, but also for the sake of democracy, the rule of law and the Constitution”, he said, adding that these were important issues in the context of the North East, India and development of the country.

When asked if the Left party supports the demand of Greater Tipraland by Tripura Motha, the party’s Tripura state secretary, Jitendra Chowhdury, a leader from the tribal community, said that Tipra Motha’s demand was “within the framework” of the Constitution, according to the ToI report.

“We have had a dialogue with them… we are looking for a respectable understanding to liberate the people of Tripura from the reign of terror,” he said.

Interestingly, on Sunday, Tipra Motha leader Debbarman had given feelers to BJP ally IPFT to unite with it and fight elections on a common symbol.

In a video message on Facebook to IPFT top brass, the royal scion had said: “We have similar political demands for empowerment and autonomy of the tribal community. It doesn’t matter what the name of the new political entity will be after unification,” adding that he was even “ready to give up the name of his party” for the greater interests of the indigenous community of Tripura.

Debbarman’s feelers to IPFT come at a time when three MLAs of BJP’s tribal ally have quit the ruling alliance government ahead of the Assembly polls, In fact, a total of seven MLAs, including from BJP, have quit the ruling government so far.

While BJP said it would reaffirm its alliance with IPFT, Tipra Motha, which has been in power in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council since 2021, has made the offer at a time when IPFT is undergoing a leadership crisis after the recent passing away of its leader N C Debabarma, who was keen on an alliance with Tipra Motha.

Reacting to the offer, IPFT spokesperson Amit Debbarma told Indian Express that: “Senior leaders of our party will think over the offer. We’ll let everyone know about our decision soon.”

Tripura has a total of 60 Assembly seats, of which 20 seats are in tribal-dominated areas.  With the poll cauldron on the boil, much would depend on which way these crucial seats go. As the Opposition (Left and Congress) get together (a smaller Trinamool Congress is yet to state its position), political observers feel that all eyes would be on Tipra Motha, which has significantly gained in strength in the past few years.