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Journalism of Courage
Tripura’s erstwhile royal scion and TIPRA Motha chief Pradyot Kishore Debbarma Thursday began a crowdfunding initiative to gather funds for his party’s campaigns for the upcoming Assembly election, slated to be held on February 16.
The TIPRA Motha, which was floated in 2021, just two months before it swept the tribal council election, has fielded 42 candidates this time without forging an alliance with anyone since no party gave any written consent for their core demand — Greater Tipraland. Kishore is not contesting the polls himself.
He said that TIPRA Motha is a small party that believes in transparency to change the system of politics. Taking to Twitter, Kishore shared the bank account details of his party and said, “We are a small party and we have said that to change the system we need transparency.”
With hefty donations ranging from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh, the crowdfunding initiative received Rs 51 lakh on the very first day from almost 4,200 donors, local reports suggest.
Speaking to Indian Express, a TIPRA Motha party source said that the list of donors include Pradyot Kishore’s aunt and Maharaja Bir Bikram’s youngest daughter ‘Maharani’ Preeti Devi, who is associated with the erstwhile royal family of Kutchh and donated Rs 10 lakh. The crowdfunding initiative also saw contribution from the marginalised category in Tripura’s hilly terrains with people donating as low as Rs 20 through online payment gateways.
The TIPRA Motha is in power in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) since 2021. The Tripura Assembly has 20 reserved seats for scheduled tribes out of the total of 60 seats.
