Agartala, Dec 24 (IANS): Emerging as a strong political force specially in the vital tribal areas, the Tipra Motha Party (TMP) led by former royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman is likely to be a big challenger for both the ruling BJP, the opposition Left parties and the Congress in the 2024 polls.
As one third (20) of the Tripura assembly’s total 60 seats and one of the two Lok Sabha constituencies are reserved for the tribals, the all important tribal vote bank is very crucial in the electoral politics of the northeastern state.
In the February 16 assembly elections, the tribal based party TMP securing 13 seats and 19.69 per cent votes got the second position after the ruling BJP, which bagged 32 seats and a vote share of 38.97 per cent.
The two-year old TMP, after capturing the politically important Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) in April 2021, has been demanding elevation of the areas of the autonomous body by granting a 'Greater Tipraland State' or a separate state status under Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution.
The sensitive ‘Greater Tipraland State’ or a separate state demand helped the party to a large extent to gather the tribal votes in a big way pushing the CPI-M led Left parties and the Congress into third and fourth position respectively.
Since 1978, the CPI-M dominated Left Front, which governed Tripura for 35 years (1978 to 1988 and 1993 to 2018) has strongholds in the 20 tribal reserve and 10 scheduled caste reserve seats in the 60-member Tripura assembly.
In the February assembly polls, the CPI-M got only 11 seats including a tribal reserve seat and the Congress, which also ruled Tripura for many years in different terms, managed only three seats.
The Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), another tribal based party and an ally of the ruling BJP, raising the demand for a separate state secured 8 seats and a 7.38 per cent vote share in the 2018 assembly polls, but in the February 16 (2023) assembly polls the party managed only one seat and a 1.26 per cent vote share as they diluted their demand, being highlighted since 2009.
The TMP in its maiden electoral battle in the assembly fielded 42 candidates, including 20 on tribal reserved seats in February and indirectly helped the BJP to get more seats due to a division of votes among three challengers – BJP, CPI-M-Congress and TMP.
The Left parties and the Congress fought the February assembly polls in a seat sharing arrangement.
Highlighting the ‘Greater Tipraland State’ demand and throwing a big challenge to all the national parties -- BJP, CPI (M) and Congress -- the TMP, the first tribal-based party in Tripura since 1952, emerged as the principal opposition in the state in the February assembly polls and is now the main stakeholder of the vote share of tribals, who always played a vital role in the electoral politics of Tripura
TMP’s founder supremo Deb Barman said that the party would continue to fight for its core demand of “Greater Tipra Land” for the tribals, who according to him are deprived of basic facilities in education, health and all other areas.
The BJP keeping in mind the tribal votes also requested the TMP leaders to join the BJP led ministry and kept three ministerial berths vacant for the tribal party.
After attending the BJP-IPFT ministers' swearing in ceremony on March 8, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J.P. Nadda, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Tripura counterpart Manik Saha held a marathon meeting with Deb Barman and other TMP leaders to persuade the TMP to enter the cabinet.
However, the TMP chief later claimed that Shah has assured him that like in the case of Nagaland, an interlocutor would be appointed to study and resolve the demands of the party within three months.
On November 28 the Centre's envoy and advisor to the Ministry of Home Affairs A.K. Mishra held a meeting with Deb Barman and other TMP leaders and discussed their demand.
The TMP supremo said that his party is sticking to its ‘Greater Tipraland’ demand and the “Centre should fulfil our demand and they should come out clearly with their views about our demand”.
“Pakistan tried to impose the Urdu language on the people of East Pakistan and then the language movement started (in 1948) leading to the creation of sovereign Bangladesh. Similarly, tribal language should be respected by all and we need our own script for the language of the indigenous people,” he told IANS.
To display the TMP’s strength and popularity, the party held a mega rally in TTAADC headquarters at Khumulwng in western Tripura on October 14 and Meghalaya Chief Minister and National People’s Party (NPP) chief Conrad K. Sangma addressed the gathering.
Sangma had said that all tribal and indigenous communities in the northeast must be united and raise their voice jointly to protect the life, culture, language and traditions of the people of the region.
“We have to protect the future of our youths. We would not remain silent against any deprivation to the tribals and indigenous people,” Sangma had said, adding "we have to be confident that one day our dream would be fulfilled”.
Deb Barman said “I have sold my royal properties in Kolkata to organise agitations for the interest of the tribals. Personally I do not want to get any government post. My only aim is to secure the future of the backward tribals.”
Now the TMP also highlights the introduction of roman scripts for the tribal “Kokborok” language at all academic levels from school to university.
During the past over five-and-a-half decades, tribal based parties in Tripura tried to play a crucial role in the state's politics but due to their issue based politics sans any ideology they became nonexistent after their issues were resolved or when they raised irrelevant demands.
In June 1967, the Tripura Upajati Juba Samity (TUJS), a former ally of the Congress, was formed as the first tribal based political party raising some tribal centric demands including creation of the tribal autonomous body.
After the TUJS, over a dozen tribal based political parties including the Tripura Hills People's Party, Tripura National Volunteers (a militant outfit turned political party), Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), Tipraland State Party (TSP), IPFT, National Conference of Tripura (NCT) have been created but over the years these parties suffered a premature death or had to merge with other parties.
In 2002, the TUJS and the TNV merged with the INPT and in 2021 the INPT merged with the new tribal based party TMP led by Deb Barman, a former Tripura state Congress president.
Political commentator and writer Satyabrata Chakraborti said that the tribal parties in Tripura ahead of all elections always raised sensitive, pro-tribal and impractical demands to woo the tribal voters but after electoral gains, they forgot their original demands.
“This is a well accepted reality that tribals in Tripura and the other states in India are backward in almost all aspects Health, education, basic necessities, and infrastructure are inadequate in the tribal areas.
"The tribal based parties forgetting the realistic issues raised sensitive and unrealistic demands only for electoral gain," Chakraborti told IANS.
He said that many tribal leaders did not live in tribal and remote areas, staying in capital city Agartala or in towns, and did not have proper knowledge about the daily needs and problems of the common and poor tribals.