Ending all speculations about a breakup, leaders of ruling BJP and Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) on Saturday jointly announced that the pre-poll alliance between the two parties would continue for the Assembly elections on February 16.
Announcing the decision in a joint press conference, BJP leaders, however, reiterated that the party is still against the demand for a separate Tipraland state, once IPFT's "core demand." The IPFT leaders, however, did not give a clear answer about their long demand.
Addressing the joint press conference at Agartala on Saturday evening, Chief Minister Manik Saha said that the IPFT would contest in five out of 60 Assembly seats while BJP would contest in the remaining seats. "We have decided to continue the alliance with IPFT which we had formed before the Assembly elections in 2018. BJP has never severed an alliance with any party. Many parties left us, but we did not and so we have agreed to support IPFT candidates in five constituencies as per discussion with their leaders," Saha told reporters.
The IPFT in 2018 had contested in nine seats and won in eight. This time, there was a lot of speculation that IPFT could walk out of the alliance as the demand for Tipraland state has grown ahead of the Assembly elections. Tipra Motha, a forum of other regional parties, led by Pradyot Deb Barma also held meetings with IPFT leaders with a proposal for merger or an alliance in order to contest the elections together on the issue of Tipraland state. But the announcement on Saturday ended all speculations.
Hours before the joint press conference, Deb Barma posted on his Facebook page, "All the IPFT leaders are surprisingly not picking up their calls. Been waiting to hear from them since 11 am. Looks like operation lotus is on."
Talks between BJP and Tipra Motha leaders on alliance also failed as Deb Barma refused to go for an alliance without a written assurance about fulfillment of its demand for "Greater Tipraland '' state for the indigenous Tripuris. Greater Tipraland comprises areas under Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTADC) and the Tripuris living in the rest of Tripura, Assam, Mizoram and neighboring Bangladesh. Tipra Motha is in power in TTADC and has decided to contest the elections alone. There are 20 constituencies reserved for the STs under the TTADC areas.
Stand on Tipraland:
"We will again form the government and will continue to work for welfare and development of the tribals in Tripura," president of BJP's Tripura unit, Rajib Bhattacharjee said. "In the past five years, our two CMs, Biplab Kumar Deb and Manik Saha worked for the welfare of the tribals. In the past five years, we never talked about the issue of Tipraland state (with IPFT) and we are again saying that we don't support the separate state demand."
When asked by a reporter about whether IPFT has given up the demand for Tipraland, Shukla Charan Naotia, spokesperson of IPFT said, "We will continue to work for solution of the problems confronting the tribals." When asked again about the Tipraland demand, Nastia said, "We will address a press conference soon."
Naotia thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for posthumously bestowing the Padma Shri award to the former president of IPFT and a Minister in the BJP-led government, NC Deb Barma, who died recently. Deb Barma's daughter, Jayanti Deb Barma will contest in her father's constituency, Ashrambari, Naotia said.