Agartala: The campaigning by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and other leaders notwithstanding, the ruling BJP will be reduced to a tally of single digits in the Tripura assembly elections this week, Communist Party of India (Marxist) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury has claimed.
Talking to ThePrint Sunday, the CPM leader said: “I can say very emphatically that BJP’s tally will be reduced to single digit. That is the reality. Not a single BJP candidate can say my seat is safe. That is why people like Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma — who has been friend, philosopher, and guide to the BJP government in Tripura for the last five years and is the architect of the current lawlessness in the state — have to make tall claims.”
Chaudhury was responding to Sarma’s “zero plus zero equals to zero” taunt, referring to the Left-Congress alliance in the state in the coming elections.
For the first time in 25 years, the face of the Left Front in Tripura is not former chief minister Manik Sarkar but Chaudhury, a man who has been a state minister several times and also a former Lok Sabha MP.
Although there is no formal announcement, top sources in both the Congress and the Left have confirmed to ThePrint that Chaudhury will be the chief minister in the event of the alliance coming to power.
However, Chaudhury skirted the question about his party’s coyness in announcing him as the chief ministerial candidate. Instead, he lashed out at the BJP for its unitary vision of India.
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‘BJP has negative approach towards tribals’
The rise of the Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) Motha has brought the issues of tribals in the state to the forefront in the election agenda of all parties. TIPRA Motha has also been advocating for a Greater Tipraland to be carved out for the indigenous population.
Chaudhury, a tribal leader himself, said: “In our 35 years rule we have proved that bifurcation of the state is not necessary for the development of tribals.”
He, however, reserved the most criticism for the BJP’s approach towards the indigenous population.
“There is a Scheduled Tribe population of 11 crore in the country. The BJP has a negative approach. Their vision of India is Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan where there is no place for adivasis (tribals). They don’t even use that word because they don’t accept them as indigenous people. They call them vanvasis (forest dwellers). It is humiliating,” Chaudhury said.
‘People compelled Cong-Left to come together’
The coming together of the Left Front and the Congress, two traditional political rivals in Tripura, Chaudhury said, was the will of the people.
“Normally during elections, political parties set the agenda. But this time in Tripura, people set the agenda and that is restoration of the rule of law and constitutional order. People compelled the secular democratic parties to come together. There are ideological and programmatic differences with the Congress, but if there is no Parliament or Bidhan Sabha, there is no debate. We also wanted the Motha in this, but it did not work out,” Chaudhury said.
He concedes that Motha will have an edge in some tribal seats but is confident that the alliance will hand a comprehensive defeat to the BJP. He called the BJP manifesto a document brought out by a team that is already “smelling defeat”.
“The BJP manifesto looks like a team with a defeated mentality. During the 2018 elections, the so-called vision document was higher than the Himalayas with 299 poll promises. This time the number is reduced to 24 and there is no mention of job generation. Last time they allured government employees. Now there is no mention of welfare measures. They are trying to bluff the tribal people of the state. Last elections they promised that within six months of the formation of government, the state would be bifurcated. They are mum on that promise now,” he pointed out.
Dismissing the chances of the Trinamool Congress in the coming assembly elections, he said: “What BJP is doing elsewhere, Trinamool is doing in West Bengal. People in Tripura understand that.”
Asked whether Manik Sarkar sitting these elections out will benefit or harm the Left Front, he said that it was Sarkar’s own decision. “Nobody can be forced against his or her will. But people realise that he is very much with us,” he added.
(Edited by Geethalakshmi Ramanathan)