Agartala, April 10: The Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) within two months of coming into Tripura’s political scape not only throttled into the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous Districts Council elections but scripted victory by being the single largest mandate zooming past the bigwigs — BJP-Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) alliance, CPIM and Congress.
The royal scion Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarman led TIPRA had registered victory in 16 of the 28 constituencies of the 30-member TTAADC — two seats being nominated — after fielding candidates in 23 while its ally, the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), the state’s oldest indigenous organization, won two after fielding five candidates.
The incumbent BJP-IPFT alliance — BJP fielded 14 and IPFT fielded 17 candidates — in the state Assembly, won nine seats with no help from its ally, and the lone seat went to an independent candidate named Bhumika Nanda Reag. The Congress and the CPIM, which had been ruling for the last 15 years last, drew blanks.
TIPRA, was a non-profit organization led by Pradyot Manikya who had in September, 2019 resigned from the Congress after serving as its Tripura president for a long tenure. Two months ahead of the TTAADC elections on April 6, Pradyot had registered the organization as a political party after forging an alliance with INPT and Tripura People’s Front in October last year.
Animesh Debbarma, general secretary of TIPRA Motha credited the victory to ‘Maharaja’ Pradyot Kishore who is also popularly known as Bubagra.
The 42-year-old Pradyot, who with the title Bubagra not only represents himself but also an 800-year-old Manikya dynasty, however, speaks of a bigger picture — a more peaceful and united one.
“We have to maintain unity. I appeal to the people to refrain from attacking the party office and houses of the supporters of IPFT, BJP, CPIM and Congress. They too are our people, and we do not want to fight amongst ourselves. If we want unity, then we have to maintain peace. They too will join our party after elections,” said Pradyot who won from Takarjala constituency.
After a brief stint away from active politics, Pradyot came back into the scape by being the interlocutor for the quadripartite Bru accord between the Bru Reangs, Tripura and Mizoram government and the Centre, that allows resettlement to ber 3,500 Bru Reang families displaced from Mizoram in 1994.
Radha Charan Debbarma the former CEM and a CPIM leader, on the other hand said, “In this elections people have expressed their anger against the ruling BJP and IPFT. Though we could not convert that in terms of votes, the angst is there and this will act against the ruling party in the coming future.”
The counting for over 8.65 lakh electors spread over 16 subdivisions in the Council that spreads over at least two-third of the state, were held in 16 counting centers and 28 counting halls on Saturday.
The elections held on April 6, saw more than 80 percent turnout.
