‘Left-Cong universal allies, TIPRA Motha in clandestine understanding with Opposition parties’: Amit Shah in Tripura

A participant at Amit Shah’s rally. (Express photo by Debraj Deb)

The Motha declined to ally with the BJP after a two-day-long meeting with Home Minister Shah in New Delhi ended inconclusively.

Shah arrived in Agartala on a two-day tour Monday afternoon and flew to Shantirbazaar in South Tripura, 82 km from the state capital, in a chopper to address an election rally. The second rally was held in Khowai, 45 km from Agartala, while a major roadshow was held in the state capital later in the evening.

Speaking at the Shantirbazaar rally, Shah said the CPI(M) and the Congress have a ‘universal alliance’.

He appealed to tribal electors to vote for the saffron party and added that free ration, toilets, power connections, housing benefits, etc were provided to them by the BJP-led NDA government. He also accused the TIPRA Motha leadership of trying to mislead people to bring back communist rule in the state.

“If you vote for TIPRA Motha, it will go to the communists. If you vote for the Congress, it will be credited to the communists. So, if you vote for them, communists will form the government. If you want the BJP again, cast your vote in favour of the Lotus,” Shah said at the party’s Vijay Sankalp rally in Shantirbazaar.

The home minister also identified illegal immigration as a major threat to the demography of Tripura, especially tribal-dominated areas in the state.

“The BJP alone can stop this (infiltration). Other political parties treat ghuspetia (infiltrators) as vote banks,” he said.

Shah referred to PM Modi’s HIRA (highways, i-ways, roadways, and airways) development model, and claimed that the state saw much progress during the BJP rule compared with the time of the erstwhile Left Front regime.

Shah said 400 persons lost their lives to political violence under the Left Front regime and added that the BJP has taken Tripura from ‘vivaad’ (dispute) to ‘vishwas’ (trust).

Reacting to Shah’s allegations, TIPRA Motha chief Pradyot Kishore later told the indianexpress.com that the BJP should not accuse others of being the ‘B-team’ of the Congress and the Communists, since the saffron party itself is a B-team of other parties in states like Meghalaya and Nagaland, and had been the B-team of the Asom Gana Parishad in Assam in the past.

Pradyot Kishore said the BJP was blaming Motha since the latter did not tie up with it for the polls.

The TIPRA Motha, floated by erstwhile royal scion Pradyot Kishore, swept the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections in 2021, just two months after it was floated.

Tripura is scheduled to undergo polling at 3,337 polling stations across 60 Assembly constituencies on February 16. The counting of votes will be held on March 2.