Keeping tribal votes in mind, BJP makes last ditch attempt to woo Tripura tribal party

In a last ditch attempt, Home Minister Amit Shah would hold a meeting with the Tipra Motha Party (TMP), which played a significant role in the February 16 Assembly polls, emerging as the second single largest party securing 13 of the 20 vital tribal reserved seats in Tripura.

In the 60-member Tripura Assembly, 20 seats are reserved for the tribals and these are very crucial to dominate the electoral politics of the state.

Despite differences on many counts, the BJP leaders, including Shah, tried a lot before the elections to get the support of the TMP to obtain a maximum number of tribal reserve seats.

A senior BJP leader told IANS that the ruling party is now frantically trying to convince the TMP to join the government, which would assume office on Wednesday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, BJP President J.P. Nadda and other senior leaders.

"Shah would hold a meeting with TMP supremo and former royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman to discuss his demands," the BJP leader said, refusing to be named.

Shah arrived in Agartala on Tuesday evening from Nagaland.

Talking to IANS, the TMP chief said that he got an invitation to hold a meeting with the Home Minister to which he responded positively.

"Unless we get a written assurance from the government about the constitutional solutions to our 'Greater Tipraland State' demand, we will not join the government, and rather sit in the opposition maintaining an equal distance from all the parties," said Deb Barman, who returned to Agartala on Tuesday after holding a meeting with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Deb Barman said that he held a discussion with Sarma in Guwahati about TMP's 'Greater Tipraland State' demand.

"It would be a great mistake if any political party wants to govern Tripura without involving the tribals as they are the indigenous people of the state. Till the time we don't get an honourable constitutional solution for our people, we will not be part of any government. We will play a constructive role as the first indigenous party which has 13 MLAs for the interest of the people.

"We cannot be looking after our individual interest over our communities. I will wait for the official response from the Government of India on how it would like to see the future of our tiprasa in the next decade," Deb Barman tweeted.

Sarma had earlier said that the issues raised by the TMP need to be discussed by the Centre and the new BJP government in Tripura.

Sarma, who is also the convener of the BJP-led North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), said that talks between the BJP and the TMP may resume but it should be under the Constitutional framework, and not on the condition of dividing Tripura.

The issues related to the tribals can be heard and discussed, the Assam Chief Minister had told the media.

Sarma, who before the Assembly polls held several rounds of negotiations with the TMP chief, had said that talks can resume but "we cannot talk about Greater Tipraland State".

The TMP, which came to the forefront before capturing the politically important Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) in April 2021, pushed the CPI-M and the Congress into third and fourth positions, respectively, in the February 16 elections, the results of which was announced on March 2.

TMP, which for the first time contested 42 seats on its own, emerged as the second largest party after the ruling BJP, securing 13 seats out of the total 20 tribal reserve seats.

The BJP won 32 seats, including six tribal reserve seats, while its ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) got one seat.

In the 2018 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 36 seats, including 10 tribal reserve seats, while and its ally IPTF bagged eight tribal reserve seats. The CPI-M had secured 16 seats, including two tribal reserve seats.

The TMP, since 2021, has been demanding elevation of the TTAADC areas by granting a Greater Tipraland State or a separate state under Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution facilitating the party to garner the support of the tribals, who constitute one-third of Tripura's little over four million population.

The party, in support of its demands, organised agitations both in the state and in the national capital.

The ruling BJP, CPI-M led Left parties, Congress and the Trinamool Congress have been strongly opposing the demand of the TMP.

In the Assembly elections, CPI-M won 11 seats but none of the tribal reserve seats though the Left party has a strong base among the tribals since 1952.

The CPI-M led Left Front, which contested the Assembly elections in a seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress, had fielded 47 candidates while 13 seats were allotted to the Congress, which bagged three seats.