Tripura BJP delaying tribal village body polls out of fear of defeat, says TIPRA Motha

TIPRA Motha leader Suresh Reang says the BJP-IPFT government is misusing the State Election Commission to delay the elections to 587 village committees, which should have been held in March 2021.

Protest held at Longtraivalley in Tripura's Dhalai district. (Photo Source: TIPRA Motha)

The Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council’s ruling TIPRA Motha party demonstrated in parts of the state on Wednesday accusing the BJP-IPFT government of deliberately delaying elections to the village committees under the council.

The elections should have been held nearly a year and a half back but were delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Motha leader Suresh Reang said the government was misusing the State Election Commission (SEC) to delay the elections out of a fear of defeat, despite a Tripura High Court directive to hold the polls in the November first week.

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The tribal council spans 70 per cent of the state’s geographical area and is distributed across almost all districts. The areas house over 30 per cent of the tribal population, hailing from 19 communities, and are administered through 587 village committees.

After the March 2021 elections were put off owing to Covid, an administrator was appointed to the council under the governor’s supervision.

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Council chairman Jagadish Debbarma said the election delay was hampering the lives of indigenous tribes.

Earlier, in August, SEC secretary P Bhattacharjee issued guidelines and said preparations were underway for the village committee polls. All block development officers were then asked to collect copies of the Assembly electoral rolls.

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Revision of the electoral rolls for the village committee elections is considered crucial since 7,68,561 voters were registered for the last polls in 2016 whereas 8,65,041 voters were enrolled for the tribal council polls last year.

With 21,000 resettled Bru migrants from Mizoram waiting to be enrolled as voters in the council areas, the revision assumes even more significance.