Agartala: The Left Front and Congress have agreed on veteran CPIM leader and tribal stalwart Jitendra Chaudhury as the chief minister face for the alliance in Tripura. Though there is no formal announcement on this from either side, Congress leader Ajoy Kumar, who is the state in-charge, brought up Chowdhury’s name Friday while addressing a rally in the constituency of state Congress chief Birajit Sinha.
As he addressed the crowd about the “failings” of the BJP government in the last five years, Kumar highlighted the commitment of the alliance to the tribal cause and then asked the crowd who is the biggest tribal leader of Tripura. “Jitendra Chaudhury,” the crowd replied. “Who will win,” pressed Kumar. “Left-Congress,” was the reply. “Who will be the CM,” asked the Tripura in-charge of the All India Congress Committee. The crowd chanted Chaudhury’s name. Hours earlier though in Agartala, when ThePrint asked CPIM general secretary Sitaram Yechury who would be the CM face of the alliance, he replied, “The MLAs will decide,” choosing not to name the state secretary who sat beside him on the dais.
Chaudhury is state secretary of CPIM and is fighting the elections from the reserved constituency of Sabroom. Sources in both the parties confirmed that there has been an agreement on his name but a formal announcement may not be forthcoming for fear of alienating the Bengalis in the state who make up about 65 per cent of the electorate.
In fact, people in the know say that with the newly formed Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA Motha), making a concerted pitch for the tribal vote bank which once had sworn by the Left Front, the need to put a tribal face forward was the main reason why former chief minister Manik Sarkar chose to sit these elections out.
One of the tallest Left leaders of the state had been Dasrath Deb, who was a tribal leader and had been chief minister from 1993 to 1998. He was succeeded by Manik Sarkar who held that post for the next 20 years.
“The tribal areas of the state had long been a fortress of the Left. So much so, that the saying goes that the Left began counting the seats they could win from 21 — that the 20 tribal dominated seats reserved for candidates from scheduled tribes will fall in their kitty was a given. That changed in 2018 when the BJP-IPFT alliance won in 18 seats. Getting back that base is very important particularly given the rising clout of the Motha. That is primarily why the decision was taken that Sarkar should sit these elections out. Chaudhury had to be made the face. The party’s squeamishness about announcing his name does not make much sense but now the Congress has put it out in the open,” an analyst with Left connections who did not want to be named said to ThePrint.
A Congress leader said to ThePrint, “The Left Front is fighting in 57 seats and they are clear that their face is Jitendra Chaudhury. Naturally, he is the CM face of the alliance.”
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Tall and respected tribal leader
The 65-year-old Chaudhury made his assembly debut in 1993 – the same year that Deb became the chief minister. He was a member of Deb’s cabinet and continued to be a state minister till 2014. He fought the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and won from the West Tripura seat. In 2018, he was elected to the CPIM’ s powerful central committee and is also the national convenor of the tribal rights panel of the party.
The soft spoken, solidly trilingual (Bengali, English, kokborok) leader, alliance leaders, say is much more of a bhoomiputra than TIPRA Motha supremo and ex-royal Pradyot Deb Barma. “He is the real son of the soil, unlike the other one whose business interests lie in another state (Meghalaya) and who speaks neither of the two languages spoken in the state – Bangla and Kokborok – fluently,” a senior Congress leader told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.
The Left, though, continues to tiptoe around the Motha question (of allying with the regional party). “We are still trying to (arrive at) some kind of an understanding at the local level in some seats and we are hopeful,” Chaudhury told ThePrint Friday.
Tripura goes to polls on 16 February, while votes will be counted on 2 March.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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