Left, Congress put history behind for a new chapter in Tripura

Between 1978 and 2018, the Left was out of power only once – 1988-1993, when a Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti alliance formed the government. In 2018, one of the major slogans of the Left – perhaps still blind to the BJP’s threat — was about that Congress term’s “kalo din (dark days)”.

The third major partner in the Left-Congress pre-poll alliance could be the TIPRA Motha, led by the scion of the erstwhile Tripura royal family, Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma. That alliance would be as much a departure for the Left as its politics in Tripura started with Jana Siksha Andolan, a popular revolt for education in the 1940s targeted against the Manikya monarchs of Tripura.

In 1949, the princely state merged with the Indian Union of its own accord.

It became a Union Territory from a Chief Commissioner-led Territorial Council in 1962, when it got its first government under the Congress, led by Sachindra Lal Singha.

Since then, Assembly polls in Tripura have resulted in clear majorities, except 1988, when the mandate was almost 50:50. In 1967, the Congress got 27 out of the 30 seats at the time. In January 1972, Tripura became a full-fledged state. The Left Front government that last ruled the state had 51 MLAs in the now-expanded House of 60. In 2018, the BJP got 36 seats, reducing the Left to 16 and the Congress to zero. BJP ally IPFT got 8 seats, though the Assembly composition has changed to a great extent in recent months due to defections.

The erstwhile royals, who all began their politics in the Congress, are now spread out, but continue to retain their popularity among the tribals – who see themselves as the original inhabitants of the state, blanked out by “outsiders”. If Pradyot now leads the Motha, his uncle Jishnu Devvarma is Deputy Chief Minister in the BJP-led state government.

Pradyot’s father Kirit Bikram Kishore Manikya, the last crowned prince of Tripura, and wife Bibhu Kumari Devi won Lok Sabha polls on Congress tickets. In 1988, after she won the Assembly elections, Bibhu Devi served as Revenue Minister in the Congress-led alliance government that came to power.

In that election incidentally, she defeated Manik Sarkar, the CPI(M) leader who would become CM after the 1998 polls and retain the post till 2018.

Pradyot, who is also being wooed by the BJP, is holding out on making any commitments as to whom he would ally with till he gets a guarantee on a Greater Tipraland state, for tribals. That might prove one of the biggest hurdles as the CPI(M) looks to it for tribal support, though party leader Sitaram Yechury tried to brush the issue under the carpet at a press conference on Wednesday.

The bargaining power of the Motha though depends on the fact that illness has kept Pradyot out of the state, and forced the party to only hold small-scale meetings – though these have attracted impressive crowds.

For now, the alliance is going full speed ahead, with a visiting team of the Congress led by its senior leader and MP Mukul Wasnik confirming Thursday that discussions with the Left were on, with the details to be worked out.