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As the nomination process for the Tripura Assembly polls drew to a close on Thursday evening, the TIPRA Motha tribal party retained all of its 42 candidates, casting doubts on the prospects of a joint fight against the ruling BJP-IPFT combine.
TIPRA Motha, which rules the state’s tribal autonomous district council, will go solo since no political party has given it a written assurance on its core demand of Greater Tipraland, party chief Pradyot Kishore reiterated, adding that his party would rather sit in the Opposition than join a government without the assurance.
CPM state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury, who had claimed that Kishore had agreed to withdraw candidates from some seats, told indianexpress.com, “It did not work out as expected. We both tried hard but it did not materialise. However, we are still trying to reach any possible understanding.”
Political observers suggest the Chaudhury’s earlier claim was a tactic to put pressure on the Congress, which had fielded 17 candidates despite entering into a seat-sharing arrangement with the CPM in 13 seats. One of them has withdrawn his nomination, leaving 16 Congress candidates in the fray. Three of the Congress candidates will face off with CPM nominees.
Unsure of Congress intentions, the CPM had filed nominations in all 60 seats. But the party later announced that it would withdraw candidates from the mutually agreed 13 seats.
The BJP, on the other hand, is yet to resolve its dispute with the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) on the tribal-reserved Ampinagar constituency. The BJP has fielded its state vice-president Patal Kanya Jamatia against its tribal ally’s MLA, Sindhucharan Jamatia, in the seat.
Initially allotted five tribal-reserved seats, the IPFT unilaterally announced later that it would contest the polls in one more seat.
Two days ago, Chief Minister Manik Saha dismissed the differences with the IPFT as “minor jerks that any vehicle would experience” and hoped the issues would be ironed out soon.
The BJP has the highest number of candidates in the fray (55), followed by the CPM (43), TIPRA Motha (42), the Trinamool Congress (28) and the Congress (13). The CPI, RSP and the Forward Bloc have put up one candidate each. While seven candidates are from unrecognised parties, 58 others are independents.
With only two nominees each, the constituencies of Jubarajnagar in North Tripura district, Barjala in West Tripura and Sabroom in South Tripura have the least number of candidates. Ten seats with six candidates each top the list in the elections where 259 candidates are in the fray.
Speaking to reporters, chief electoral officer Kiran Dinkarrao Gitte said, “We received 310 nomination papers…from January 21 to 30. During scrutiny, 19 nominations were rejected. Thirty-two of 291 valid nominations were withdrawn till 3pm today.”
