As campaigning drew to a close in the East Tripura constituency, which goes to the polls on Friday in the Lok Sabha elections’ second phase, voters seemed divided over their choices. Among the nine candidates in the fray, the main fight is between the BJP’s Kriti Singh Debbarma, a political greenhorn in Tripura, and seasoned politician Rajendra Reang of the CPM, which is part of the Opposition INDIA bloc. The BJP won the seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribes, in 2019, when Rebati Tripura emerged victorious with a 46.12 per cent vote share. However, the Lok Sabha seats in Tripura—there are only two—have mostly been won by the party at the helm in the state government, barring a few times. When the Congress ruled the state, communist leaders such as Dasarath Deb and Biren Dutta were elected, long before the CPM first came to power in 1978. Both sides claim they have the upper hand, although the BJP seems to have a slight advantage with its mixed method of traditional campaigning, door-to-door appeals as well as digital campaigning with the help of “prachar” vehicles that take the achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 10-year rule to the people. The INDIA bloc, partly crippled by frozen bank accounts and alleged intimidation of its supporters, is focusing more on door-to-door campaigns and small gatherings. While leaders of both the sides claim people have already made up their minds, the voters did not appear so. Speaking to indianexpress.com, Dipak Shil of Kalyanpur in Khowai district said it didn’t matter to him which government came to power, because as a snacks vendor, he has to work to feed himself. However, he feels the coming together of the CPM and Congress, despite their bitter past of violence and rivalry, might have made some people unhappy. Naresh Biswas, 58, of Paharmura village in the same district, said the CPM had won the East Tripura seat for several decades. Though the BJP has been in power since 2018, the Left has held on to its base in Khowai Assembly segment, where the MLA is from the CPM, he added. However, Biswas said the BJP was likely to win the seat this time. “The CPM won before but it seems BJP will win this time. Rajendra Reang did not come to this area. Kriti Singh Debbarma came here and addressed rallies. It is likely she will win,” he said. Thousands of people, mostly women, turned up at a BJP roadshow in Khowai on Tuesday. One of them, Rina Goala from Dhalabil village, said she supported the saffron party and cited safe drinking water, housing benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, 5kg free rice, Ayushman Bharat health card and other benefits she got from the government while explaining her choice. “Women will support Modiji in this election. We want Modi-ji for a third term,” she said. 'Though Greater Tipraland is not possible.' Usha Rani Sinha, a tribal woman from the Khowai Puranbazaar area, also feels the BJP will win. “She (Kriti Singh Debbarma) said that if she won, she would work for the people of Tripura. Greater Tipraland is not possible but we are hoping to get a big package from the central government for tribal welfare,” she said. Greater Tipraland is among the demands of Kriti’s brother and royal-scion-turned-politician Pradyot Kishore, founder of the TIPRA Motha, which recently joined the BJP-led state government. Sinha also said INDIA candidate Rajendra Reang had not come to her locality to campaign and did not have much following in Khowai. That over 5,000 people turned up for a BJP roadshow in Khowai, which the Left used to consider its impenetrable fort (“Khowair maati, durjoy ghaati”) is telling. However, not everyone feels the same. 'Choice between communal polarisation and democracy' Sagar Paul, a 25-year-old university student from Durganagar village, said he would vote for the INDIA bloc. For him, between communal polarisation, “hooliganism” and the fight for democracy, the choice is clear. “Irrespective of the party, I will vote for those who will give me a job after I graduate, or to someone who will allow me to speak freely. I will never vote for someone who offers me money and asks me to engage in hooliganism. I am in favour of INDIA,” he said. Paul also said that several of his friends who had supported the BJP before the 2018 Assembly elections resorted to hooliganism. Most of them went inactive, he added, after the 2023 polls as they came under attack when they tried to speak up about the BJP's unfulfilled promises of jobs and development. Speaking about the poll code violations and hooliganism that allegedly took place in West Tripura, which voted on April 19, Paul said he apprehended that the untoward incidents could double in the second phase. Paul is hopeful of a “silent revolution”, nonetheless. “We have faith in the people. They saw 25 years of Left rule and five years of Congress rule. They have seen six years of BJP rule. So those who were fooled by promises such as Rs 15 lakh in every account, 200 days of MGNREGA work and jobs will not support the BJP again. People will start a silent revolution. There is no bigger force than the people,” he said. Dulal Das, a mason from Khowai’s Subhash Park area, said that supporters of the Opposition parties were being intimidated. “We are intimidated. But we will prevail. We hope that at least 40 per cent of voters who supported the BJP will vote for us out of frustration,” he said. 'East Tripura election will be peaceful' Perceptions, however, are not along the similar lines everywhere. Manoranjan Debbarma, 58, a farmer from the Ampora Bazaar area in Khowai, was seen at a small corner meeting of the INDIA bloc in the Subhash Park area. He said the situation was better in East Tripura compared with the West constituency. “The situation is better. I feel there is no reason to fear here. There is safety here. There was intimidation in the past. But central security forces are patrolling our areas. There was no incident of violence till now,” he said. Manoranjan said that “Maharajkumari” Kriti Singh Debbarma did have an influence on some tribal people because of the royal factor. However, he said, “Tribals are divided between Kriti Singh Debbarma and Rajendra Reang.” The tribal and royal factors Kriti Singh Debbarma’s nomination as the BJP candidate drew a lot of accusations from the Opposition camp, especially since she allegedly has a case booked against her and her husband in Chhattisgarh. The fact that she was not politically active in Tripura has also been weaponised by the Opposition. Kriti Singh Debbarma's nomination came a fortnight after the BJP-led central government signed a tripartite agreement with the state government and TIPRA Motha to find an “honourable solution” to “amicably resolve” all issues of the indigenous people of Tripura relating to history, land rights, political rights, economic development, identity, culture, language etc. and just days after Motha joined the state government. Pradyot Kishore had recently said that he would make sure to send someone from his own people to Delhi from East Tripura to make sure the tripartite agreement was not blocked. He also said he felt the party symbol did not matter as much as the right person to pursue the accord. The TIPRA Motha, which rules the Tripura ADC, holds significant sway in the state’s tribal belts. And the royal factor cannot be discounted as far as Lok Sabha polls are concerned. Pradyot Kishore’s parents—the late Kirit Bikram Kishore Manikya Debbarma and Bibhu Kumari Devi—were Congress MPs. His father defeated communist heavyweight Dasarath Deb, who later served as chief minister in 1993-98.
