A primer to Tripura elections: Key parties, allies

Here’s a breakdown of the political landscape in the northeastern state before the triangular contest in 60 Assembly seats

Tripura is headed for a single-phase Assembly election on February 16, a challenge for the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government looking to replicate its 2018 victory against the Congress and the Left Front, amid fresh fame for the new regional outfit Tipra Motha.

Here’s a breakdown of the political landscape in the northeastern state before the tight contest in 60 Assembly seats, one of the semi-finals for the BJP before the general elections next year.

Also read | Tripura Polls: 'Greater Tipraland' stirs the pot

Main contestants in the fight for Tripura

The ruling BJP government, led by Chief Minister Manik Saha, won the state after a hard-fought battle in the previous Assembly poll held in February 2018, thwarting the CPI(M)-led Left Front after its 25-year rule in the state.

BJP, IPFT

The saffron party has fielded candidates in 55 seats, leaving no stone unturned to woo the electorate once more. It even reached out to the newborn outfit Tipra Motha Party for an alliance in response to the growing demand for a separate state, but that was not to be. More on that later.

The BJP has again tied up with the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), a regional front that will contest the remaining 5 seats in the state with BJP and a single seat on its own, where it’ll go up against BJP in a 'friendly fight'.

In the 2018 assembly polls, in which the BJP-IPFT combine ended the long rule of the Left Front, the saffron party had bagged 36 seats, including 10 ST reserved constituencies, while its alliance partner had bagged eight seats.

The “Narendra Modi wave” and the promise of development helped BJP defeat the leftists in the constituencies in the plains with the non-tribal majority.

However, the IPFT began losing public support after failing to deliver its core demand of Tipraland state, and instead agreeing to a common minimum programme of the BJP under which the Centre constituted a panel for socio-economic and linguistic development of the tribals, political observers told PTI.

Also Read: CPI(M), Congress alliance in Tripura attempt to save parties' existence: J P Nadda

The IPFT, which once played a key role in eroding the Left Front’s traditional tribal vote bank, over the last two-and-half-years suffered the loss of support base as Tipra Motha began harping on the demand for Greater Tipraland, a separate state carving out tribal areas of Tripura.

Tipra Motha

This brings us to the newest and fast-growing competitor in the state, the Tipra Motha party. Pradyot Deb Barma, a member of an erstwhile royal family in the region, formed the Tipra Motha after quitting Congress following the anti-CAA agitation in 2020 and launched an agitation for a "Greater Tipraland '' state for the indigenous Tripuris. The Tipraland comprises areas under the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTADC) and the indigenous Tripuris living in the rest of Tripura, Assam, Mizoram and neighboring Bangladesh.

Tipra Motha defeated BJP, its ally IPFT and other parties in the TTADC elections held in March 2021. The party is focussing mainly on at least 20 tribal-dominated Assembly constituencies under the TTADC.

Political observers believe that Tipra Motha’s popularity rose not only because it raised the separate statehood demand but also because tribals still revere the royal family and they refer to Pradyot Deb Barma as ‘Bubagra’ or king.

CPI(M), Congress, TMC

The last contenders, not unlike most elections in recent times, are Congress and the Left Front. For the first time, the CPI(M)-led Left Front, which ran the government in Tripura for 25 years till 2018, and the Congress entered into a seat-sharing deal to contest the poll for the 60-member assembly.

Read | Tripura: BJP-Tipra Motha talks for alliance fail, Motha to fight alone

The CPI(M) will contest in 43 seats while Left Front constituents Forward Block, RSP and CPI will fight in one constituency each. While the Congress will contest in 13 seats, the Left Front is supporting an independent candidate in the Ramnagar constituency.

Meanwhile Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, which is trying to cement its presence in the north-east, put up candidates in 28 seats where it 'believes it has a chance of winning'.

The party has strongly opposed any alliance with the CPI(M)-Congress combine because it believes that the "initiative will face the similar fate what had happened in West Bengal Assembly election in 2021".

Senior CPI(M) leader Pabitra Kar said the Congress-Left alliance is expected to gain in the fight between Tipra Motha and the BJP as the saffron party’s alliance partner IPFT has lost its strength in the hills, but the CPI(M) still has its loyal supporters in the tribal areas.

“In the 2018 polls, the IPFT had not only bagged eight seats but also helped the BJP win 10 constituencies in the hills. But this time, who will help the saffron party get the blessings of the indigenous voters?” he said.

(With agency inputs)