BJP stumps Tipra Motha, revives alliance with IPFT
The BJP has managed to revive its alliance with the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), thereby staving off an attempt of the party’s merger with TIPRA Motha.
Published: 30th January 2023 08:39 AM | Last Updated: 30th January 2023 08:39 AM | A+A A-
Tipra Motha supremo Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma. (Photo | Twitter)
GUWAHATI: The BJP has managed to revive its alliance with the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), thereby staving off an attempt of the party’s merger with TIPRA Motha. To avoid the division of tribal votes and corner the BJP, the royal scion Pradyot Manikya Debbarma desperately wanted the IPFT to merge with his TIPRA Motha. Recently, he held a closed-door meeting with the IPFT leadership, reportedly in Guwahati.
Later in a video message, he said the two parties agreed to start a process to become a “singular” party and fight the election with a “singular flag and symbol” against anyone opposed to the “constitutional demand” for “Greater Tipraland” state.
The BJP, which is facing a tough contest, forged a pre-poll alliance with the IPFT. The BJP will contest 55 seats and the IPFT 5. Even in 2018, they had fought the election together and formed a coalition government, but their ties strained later which saw three of the 8 IPFT MLAs going to the TIPRA Motha.
The BJP and the IPFT announced their pre-poll alignment at a joint media briefing Saturday night. In a last-ditch attempt, Debbarma tried to stall the alliance. He called almost all IPFT leaders but none of them responded. “…Looks like Operation lotus is on!” he later tweeted.
Tripura has 60 seats – 20 of them reserved for the STs in tribal areas where the tribe-based parties TIPRA Motha and IPFT hold sway. But the TIPRA Motha is attempting to make it a pan-Tripura party.
