New Delhi: The Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance, or the TIPRA Motha, is in talks with the Congress to stitch up an alliance ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, ThePrint has learnt.
While the discussions are at an early stage, TIPRA Motha chairman Pradyot Kishore Debbarma may contest the polls from the Tripura East Lok Sabha constituency as part of the seat-sharing arrangement, which is in the works.
Rebati Tripura of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) currently represents the scheduled tribes (ST) constituency in the Lok Sabha.
The development portends fresh trouble for the BJP, which is grappling with a major ethnic flare up in Manipur where it is the ruling party. While the party is also in power in Tripura, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, it is a junior partner in the government led by the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) in Nagaland.
Debbarma, who served the Congress’ working president in Tripura before he quit the party in 2019, is learnt to have held discussions with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in this regard. The 44-year-old titular head of the erstwhile royal house of Tripura shares close ties with the Gandhi siblings.
“…I am always in touch with my former friends from my old party. We have our options open,” he told The Print Monday
“Yes, absolutely. We are very interested in contesting the East Tripura seat. Whether I will be a candidate myself is something that my party will decide,” Debbarma said to a specific question on whether he will contest the polls.
In the Tripura election held in February, the BJP bagged 32 seats, settling one seat past the halfway mark in the 60-member state assembly. The TIPRA Motha won 13 seats, emerging as the second largest party, while the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Congress, which contested under a seat-sharing pact, 11 and three seats respectively.
Though the TIPRA Motha’s hope to play the kingmaker in the event of a hung assembly was dashed, the BJP’s central leadership keeping its tenuous majority in mind, adopted a cautious approach on Debbarma’s demand for a separate state of ‘Greater Tipraland’, which resonated with a large section of the indigenous communities during the polls.
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Tripura political equation
Since the Tripura election result came out on 2 March, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has also met Debbarma twice. While Debbarma maintains that the Centre has promised to appoint A.K. Mishra, the Centre’s interlocutor for the Naga peace talks, to examine the ‘Greater Tipraland’ demand as well, there has been no official word, so far.
On Monday, Debbarma reiterated his claim. “Mr Mishra spoke to me as recently as three to four days ago. He messaged me saying he is still busy with Manipur, but he will be coming (to Tripura),” he told ThePrint.
“On one hand, I am told by the Home Minister that an interlocutor will be appointed. And then you hear the former deputy chief minister of Tripura (Jishnu Dev Varma) mock us. Either there is a disconnect inside the BJP or this is a very clear design to play good cop, bad cop and to finish our credibility. Unfortunately for the BJP I am no greenhorn and I have many friends outside the TIPRA Motha party as well. We have always held on to our secular credentials and constitutional values,” he said.
Last Friday, Dev Varma had been critical of the TIPRA Motha while addressing a rally of youth workers of the BJP and the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT).
Earlier in the day, the TIPRA Motha chief had come out with a tweet after Dev Varma attacked him.
Some BJP leaders who are mocking us by saying where is Greater Tipraland ? Let me now ask them a few questions
1. Where is village council election?
2. Where is development of Adc? All your BAC chairman's are sitting since 2018
3.…
— Pradyot_Tripura (@PradyotManikya) June 12, 2023
Even as Debbarma has toned down his demand for a separate state and instead pressing on the need for a “Constitutional solution” to secure the rights and interests of the tribals, the TIPRA Motha’s growing rift with the BJP appears to have forced him to play hardball. On Sunday, he met Tripura Congress president Birajit Sinha, who is undergoing treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi.
“I think that the picture that is emerging is that if the attitude of the state government continues like it is continuing, then TIPRA Motha and the BJP will be facing each other in every political battle and will be pitted against each other. Because the language spoken by the Central government and the language and attitude shown by elements of the state government are very contrary,” Debbarma said, adding that there was a growing trust deficit with the BJP.
“And I think the time has also come to realise that division of votes is something which benefits only one party and, hence, we should also try to put our minds together to have a one to one contest across India and that is the view of many people inside the party and outside,” he told ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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