Rajendra Reang, the INDIA bloc’s candidate in the East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency, filed his nomination papers on Tuesday following a rally attended by supporters of the CPM, Congress and a few regional parties that have joined the Opposition bandwagon. In his address at the rally in Ambassa, 90 km from Agartala, Reang said the BJP-led government had failed to meet the basic requirements of the people, especially the tribals. The former MLA also said the BJP’s “authoritarian regime” would be ousted from the Centre with support from people from all walks of life. Tripura Left Front convener Narayan Kar said that Reang came from a family of martyrs as his father Sarbajoy Reang was murdered by militants of the outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura in 2001. CPM state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury said his party and the Congress were fighting together to save the Constitution, democracy and the unity and integrity of the nation. He accused the BJP of failing to fulfil its promises made during the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. “They promised to provide 2 crore jobs to unemployed youths every year. Lakhs of youths have lost employment across the country. The BJP is the most corrupt political party in the whole world,” he said. Congress leader Sudip Roy Barman said, “The whole country is in danger. The BJP is trying to win the parliamentary elections by imprisoning Opposition leaders and by freezing the Congress’s bank accounts in a nefarious design to starve the party before the campaign. The BJP’s sole agenda is to highlight their fake stories of development and fool the people.” Barman also said it was clear that the INDIA bloc was going to come to power with a thumping majority. The two Lok Sabha seats in the state, West Tripura and East Tripura (reserved for Scheduled Tribes), are scheduled to go to the polls on April 19 and April 26 respectively. Rajendra Reang is a CPM state committee leader and a former MLA for Kanchanpur, from where he was elected in 2018. He also served as an executive member of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council. He is pitted against BJP candidate Kriti Singh Debbarma, of the erstwhile Manikya royal family. She is the sister of Pradyot Kishore Debbarma, founder of the TIPRA Motha, which recently joined the state government led by the saffron party. Kriti Singh Debbarma While Kriti Singh has been nominated by the BJP, Motha claims she is the joint candidate of both parties. The youngest daughter of the late Kirit Bikram Kishore Manikya, she is a greenhorn in Tripura politics. Kriti Singh went to Loreto Convent at Shillong, Meghalaya, earned a diploma from the Centre for Environmental Education in Ahmedabad in 1998, pursued her Management Appreciation Programme for Voluntary Agencies and Senior Management & Rural Development Course at the Institute of Rural Management Anand, Gujarat, in 1999 and served as animal welfare officer at Shillong from 1992 to 1994. Kriti Singh has been associated with different NGOs engaged in promoting water management, watershed development and rural development projects in Madhya Pradesh’s Panna district. As an agriculturalist, she focussed on organic farming, horticulture, breeding and preservation of indigenous cattle breeds in Madhya Pradesh. Kriti Singh manages a heritage hotel, Palace Kawardha, at Kawardha in Chhattisgarh. Her husband Yogeshwar Raj Singh belongs to the erstwhile Kawardha Raj royal family. She unsuccessfully contested the 2018 Chhattisgarh Assembly election as an independent candidate in Kawardha. TIPRA Motha holds significant sway in Tripura’s tribal belts. Considering that the East Tripura constituency is reserved for tribals, the Motha factor may be crucial in this election.
