Four days after the Tipraland State Party broke away from TIPRA Motha, Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma play down the development saying that those who left Motha were people whom the party did not give tickets for the 2023 Assembly polls. “Dinesh (Debbarma) was not given the ticket for Assembly polls from Ramchandraghat. He was not happy and since then he had not been with the party. I was also not given the ticket. It’s their right if they don’t get a ticket and leave the party. I would not comment on that,” Pradyot told reporters on Friday, referring to one of the TSP leaders who announced their decision to part ways with Motha earlier this month. On Monday, Dinesh Debbarma and Sridam Debbarma said the old party needed to be revived to ensure the survival of the indigenous community, alleging that TIPRA Motha had not held any agitation recently for the community. Pradyot said that TIPRA Motha was fighting for Tipraland. “TIPRA Motha’s fight is not for a ticket or the CPM ideology or the BJP ideology. Our fight is for the Tipraland ideology, our fight is for a constitutional solution. Those who want to do politics, let them do it. If you leave the party after not getting a ticket, then it’s your right. It’s easy to form a party but tough to work hard spending your own money,” he said. He wished they would also fight for Tipraland. Pradyot also asked the TSP leaders to get an audience with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi, implying that he is the only regional political leader from Tripura to have direct access to the BJP high command. His comment came in response to Dinesh Debbarma’s statement that Motha MLAs were meeting Shah in Delhi. Dinesh had also accused the Motha leadership of failing to fulfil the promise of Greater Tipraland and asked why there was no agitation for the goal. “Ask them (TSP) to get an appointment with Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi. It’s not that easy, being in Opposition, to fight for your people without any compromise,” said Pradyot. He said his party’s fight would continue till he breathed his last. “TIPRA Motha is not important. Tiprasa is important,” he added. TIPRA Motha was formed in 2021 by Pradyot after the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura Tipraha, a breakaway faction of the ruling IPFT, Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra, Nationalist Congress of Tripura, Tipraland State Party, Tripura People’s Front, a host of other regional tribal parties and organisations joined hands over the demand for establishing Greater Tipraland, only to find the TPF and the IPFT leave Motha soon afterwards. Soon after its formation, Motha swept the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council elections, wresting power from the CPM, which had ruled the council for one and a half decades. It also defeated the BJP, which is in power in the state. In the Assembly polls held in February, Motha contested 44 of the 60 seats and won 13 of them, becoming the main Opposition party in the House.
