GUWAHATI: The BJP on Saturday suffered a shock defeat at the hands of The Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections.
The newly-floated TIPRA, an umbrella body of tribal parties, swept the polls, winning 18 of the 28 seats. The combine of BJP and Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), which rules the state, won nine seats while the other seat went to an independent candidate. Left Front and Congress drew a blank.
The polling, held on Tuesday, recorded a voters’ turnout of 85%.
The TIPRA, headed by Tripura’s royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman who had earlier served as the Pradesh Congress chief, was floated a few months ago. The state’s oldest tribal political party Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) is a TIPRA component. It was earlier a Congress ally.
The TTAADC was constituted in 1985 under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution for the socio-economic development of the state’s tribals. The council’s jurisdiction is spread over two-thirds of Tripura’s 10,491 sq km area and home to 12.16 lakh people, 90% of which are tribals.
The term of the TTAADC, of which the Governor is the constitutional head, had expired on May 17 last year but the elections could not be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By promulgating the Governor's rule, the state government had appointed a retired IAS officer as its administrator for six months. Later, his tenure was extended by another six months.
The demography of Tripura underwent a major change as a result of migration from then East Bengal and subsequently, from Bangladesh. The tribals in the state have for long been demanding a separate state and they also waged an armed struggle.
In 2009, the IPFT started agitating demanding that the TTAADC areas be upgraded to a separate state. The TIPRA too has raised the demand for a “greater Tipraland”.