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Journalism of Courage
In a surprise turn of events, the BJP on Saturday managed to hold on to ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) for the coming Assembly elections. The IPFT announced that it would fight five seats in a tie-up between the two parties, at a press conference attended by the top state BJP leadership.
The development is a boost for the BJP as it seeks re-election in Tripura, with the tribal vote set to be divided between the IPFT and the fast-rising TIPRA Motha.
In fact, a few days ago, the IPFT had announced that it was holding talks with the Motha for a possible merger. The IPFT announcement Saturday came hours after the BJP released a list of 48 names, while indicating that possibilities of a tie-up were still on. The five seats announced for the IPFT were ones on which the BJP did not name candidates.
In 2018, the IPFT had contested 12 seats, and won eight. However, several of its legislators have recently quit and joined the Motha, decreasing its bargaining power.
TIPRA Motha chief Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma, who only Friday ruled out any seat-sharing talks with the BJP, indicated his surprise at the sudden turn of events. Before the IPFT came out with its announcement, he tweeted: “All the IPFT leaders are surprisingly not picking up their calls! Been waiting to hear from them since 11 am! Looks like Operation lotus is on!”
Later, he told The Indian Express he was not surprised. “They (the IPFT) have done it before, they ditched us once before and now again,” Pradyot Debbarma said, adding, “They have obligations. I understand.” He also claimed on Twitter that “thousands of IPFT supporters” were joining the Motha across the state.
At the announcement of the BJP-IPFT tie-up, attended by IPFT leaders Bidhan Debbarma and Shuklacharan Noatia, Chief Minister Manik Saha of the BJP said it had decided to allocate 5 ST reserved seats to the tribal party, including Takarjala, Ramchandraghat, Asharambari, Kanchanpur and Jolaibari.
“We allied with the IPFT in 2018, fought the polls and formed the government. We don’t desert our allies… that’s our culture. Others may have left us, but we have decided to continue our Common Minimum Programme with our ally and to fight together,” Saha said, while deflecting questions on why the tie-up had been reached at the last minute, with the deadline to file nominations ending in two days.
The IPFT decision to form the alliance comes days after the BJP government at the Centre announced the Padma Shri for its founder, N C Debbarma, who passed away recently. While that may have swayed the party, the defections to the TIPRA Motha would have also played a part.
Set up in 1999, the IPFT had started on a high by winning the 2002 elections to the tribal areas autonomous council, but then suffered a series of splits. It had resurfaced in 2009 with a slogan for ‘Tipraland’ — a proposed statehood for tribals – and was believed to have won its seats last time on that plank.
However, the BJP never agreed to the statehood demand, and the Common Minimum Programme agreed upon by the two only talked of a high-power committee to work for socio-economic, cultural and linguistic development of tribals. While the Union Home Ministry eventually set up such a panel, its findings are yet to be made public.
The Motha has gained swift popularity largely on account of promising a ‘Greater Tipraland’, which extends statehood demand to areas beyond Tripura inhabited by Tripuri tribals.
Naotia, the Youth IPFT general secretary who was present at the announcement of the alliance, acknowledged the Padma Shri to Debbarma as a prestigious honour, adding: “People blessed us, so we formed the government (last time) with a good margin. In the last five years, we have worked for the development of tribals.”
BJP state president Rajeeb Bhattacharjee, who was also present, said the party believes in development but is opposed to statehood demands like Tipraland or Greater Tipraland. “The IPFT raised the demand of Tipraland before 2018, but we have worked together the last five years and it has never spoken of it,” Bhattacharya said.
Asked whether this meant the IPFT had dropped its core Tipraland agenda, or if it would raise it later as part of the arrangement with the BJP, Noatia was evasive. “We have been fighting on the agenda that our party was formed on peacefully and democratically for a solution through Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution. We are fighting together with the BJP since they are helping us,” he said.
