Newly-formed TIPRA sweeps Tripura tribal council polls
The newly-formed TIPRA, led byformer state Congress president Pradyot Kishore Deb Barman,swept the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council(TTAADC) elections on Saturday, winning 18 of the 28 seatsthat went to the polls, official sources said.
The Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance(TIPRA) secured 18 seats, the BJP won nine seats and one seatwas bagged by an Independent candidate, they said.
In the 30-member tribal council, elections were heldin 28 seats on Tuesday. Representatives in the remaining twoseats will be nominated by the governor on the advice of thestate government.
The TTAADC area is two-third of the state territory,and is the home to the tribals, who constitute one-third ofTripuras population.
Deb Barman urged his supporters to maintain peace ascelebrations broke out with the newly-formed party getting anabsolute majority in the elections.
“We have to maintain unity. I appeal to the people torefrain from attacking the party office and houses of thesupporters of IPFT, BJP, CPI(M) and Congress. They too are ourpeople and we do not want to fight among ourselves. If we wantunity then we have to maintain peace. They too will join ourparty after the elections,” he said.
A victory rally will be organised on Monday at thetribal council headquarters in Khumulwung, about 25 km fromAgartala, Deb Barman announced.
“Do not fight among yourself, this has continued for70 years and let the whole India see how Tipraha maintainsunity even after winning the election,” he told hissupporters.
Deb Barman, who was the state unit president ofCongress, quit the party in September 2019, citing differenceswith the high command.
A month later, he announced the name of his new outfit– TIPRA, which was initially a social organisation but in2020, was turned into a political party.
CPI(M) leader Radhacharan Debbarma said it was thevictory of the people.
“We accept that we lost this election. Why we havelost the election will be discussed and reviewed later by theparty. But at present, we can say that it is the victory ofthe people,” he said.
“People made a promise to each other that they want todefeat the present government, which is what we believe wasresponsible for the defeat of the BJP,” said Debbarma, theformer chief executive member (CEM) of the TTADC.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front, which governed the TTAADCfor the last twenty years before the April 6 elections, couldnot win a single seat.
The elections were largely being seen as a bipolarcontest between Deb Barmans new party and the BJP-IPFTalliance, while the Left Front, which is yet to recover fromits defeat in the state elections in 2018, being considered afringe player.
BJP state spokesperson Subrata Chakraborty said thatthe party contested in 14 seats and won in nine.
The Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), theally of the ruling BJP in the state, which contested in 17seats also could not win in a single seat.
The Congress fielded candidates in all the seats butalso drew a blank.
Former chief minister Samir Ranjan Barmancongratulated Deb Barman and his party for the landslidevictory.
“This is the beginning of the end of the BJP rule inTripura,” the veteran Congressman said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)