TIPRA Motha announces third candidate list for Tripura Assembly elections

With this, TIPRA Motha has fielded candidates in 20 ST reserved constituencies and 22 non-ST seats in the state.

The latest came after the tribal party headed by Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barma declared its 20 candidates in its first list and 10 in the second one Sunday. They included three for ST seats, one for an SC seat, and the rest from unreserved constituencies. One of the candidates, Motha fielded from the unreserved constituencies is a woman tribal candidate.

Among the prominent names in the second list is that of former MLA Tapas De, who was with the Congress for over five decades until he shifted to TIPRA Motha and was given the charge of its Tipra Citizens Forum last year. The other major contestant is Ranjit Debbarma, who used to be the supremo of the outlawed insurgent outfit All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) until 2012 when he was arrested in Bangladesh.

The TIPRA Motha has said it will fight alone in the February 16 Tripura Assembly elections and ruled out an alliance with the BJP-led NDA after two days of discussions. The tribal outfit said the Centre didn’t accept its statehood demand in writing.

The developments came after a large gathering was reported in front of the Ujjayanta Palace annexe building, where the erstwhile royal family is housed, Sunday afternoon. TIPRA Motha youth leader Hollywood Chakma, who was given a ticket from the Pabiacherra Assembly constituency, was seen coming to Agartala with an entourage of supporters to talk to Motha supremo Pradyot Kishore over contesting from a separate seat and saying he would have to listen to people’s aspirations.

However, Chakma brushed aside the issue as “baseless” later in the evening and said he and his supporters came to meet Pradyot Kishore since many of them had never met him in person before. He added they wanted to seek his “blessings” before filing their nomination papers at their respective constituencies Monday.

In the afternoon, a voice message from Pradyot Kishore was shared in the party’s WhatsApp group in the afternoon, where the leader was heard saying he was pained to see that some leaders were only interested in becoming MLAs and were not serious about the Tiprasa or the tribal community. However, he did not name any leader.

He appealed to his supporters to fight for Greater Tipraland—a proposed separate state for Tripuri tribals living in the state and parts of Assam, Mizoram, and parts of Bangladesh—which is the party’s core demand. He also asked them to maintain thansa or unity and work for the February 16 Assembly elections in the state.