Tripura 2023: Success of women candidates may decide next govt

Agartala: In the run-up to the Manipur elections last year, one of the most discussed topics, apart from the political battle of course, was the low representation of women in the state. As our analysis showed, the number of women MLAs may have been low in Manipur, but the state fared much better than other states like Mizoram and Nagaland, which had zero women MLAs.

Tripura’s history also shows that while women have faced tough battles in electoral politics, they have always found representation in state legislatures.

The history of women’s representation in Tripura politics dates back to a time when it hadn’t even became a full-fledged state. In 1967, Renuka Chakraborty became the first female member when she was nominated to the 32-member Tripura Territorial Council.

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In 1972, when assembly elections took place for the first time, Tripura also got its first woman MLA in the form of Basana Chakraborty, who was offered a ministerial berth as well. Since then, women have regularly featured on the state’s political spectrum.

How many candidates: Which party leads the way?

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has nominated the highest number of women candidates and some of these seats have high stakes for the saffron party.

BJP insiders said the party’s pro-women approach was a “tried and tested formula” that has been successful in many elections. Even in 2018, the party’s women leaders emerged successful in crucial seats and this time too, the party is banking on the formula.

A senior BJP functionary who wished not to be named said, “Women voters are the key support base of the BJP because women are the primary beneficiaries of the BJP-led Central or state government schemes. Be it 33 per cent reservation for women in government services and other government benefits, reaching out to women voters has been a sustained effort from the BJP. This will certainly influence the poll results to a large extent.”

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The BJP has nominated candidates for 55 assembly constituencies, of which 12 are women, a percentage of 22%. The ally IPFT has also fielded the party’s founding president’s daughter, Jayanti Debbarma, from the Asharambari constituency, taking the total number of women contestants up to 13 from the ruling coalition.

Royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarman-led TIPRA Motha Party (TMP) stands second in terms of women candidates. Among the party’s 42 candidates, six are women. The CPIM-led Left Front has the lowest percentage of women candidates, with only two women leaders getting party tickets across 43 seats.

Trinamool Congress has nominated three women, while the Congress has nominated one woman candidate. With five more women contesting the elections independently, there are 30 women on the political battlefield this time. This accounts for 12 per cent of the total 259 valid nominations filed in these elections.

What constituencies represent main battlegrounds?

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BJP has high hopes from the women voters, which explains why it has nominated women candidates from some of the toughest constituencies in the state. Two top leaders of Tripura BJP–Union Minister Pratima Bhowmik and state general secretary Papia Datta–will face off in what could very well be the two toughest seats for their party. Bhowmik, a senior BJP leader, is pitted against the CPIM’s Kaushik Chanda and TIPRA’s Amiya Noatia for the Dhanpur assembly constituency under the Sepahijala district.

A Left citadel, Dhanpur has been loyal to the Left for the last 50 years. Former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, the current leader of the opposition, won from Dhanpur four times in a row. Since he retired from parliamentary politics, CPIM fielded Kaushik Chanda, a young face of the party.

Political experts view Dhanpur as a tough seat for all parties because of the complex nature of its voters. Although the constituency has around 50,000 voters, fifty per cent of those are tribals (11,000 in ten villages) and Muslims (14,000). In the predominantly Hindu-Bengali pockets, the CPIM and BJP are locked in fierce competition.

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However, the Union Minister is very confident of BJP’s victory in the region. In an interview with EastMojo, Bhowmik said, “The secular parties planted the seed of fear among Muslim voters but the BJP governed the state for five years. It has proven that Muslims have no reasons to fear. The BJP does not discriminate against people based on religious lines. My constituency’s Muslim pockets have received better roads, street lights, drinking water and Rs 6,000 cash under PM Kisan Sanman Nidhi. They will never vote otherwise.”

Similarly, in the 6 Agartala constituency, BJP’s Papia Datta will take on Congress’s Sudip Roy Barman, the man who played his part in the formation of the first BJP-IPFT government in the state. Following differences with the party’s high command, Barman defected from the saffron camp. In the recently held by-elections, Barman ‘rewarded’ the BJP by beating them on his home turf. And now, he has locked horns with Papia Datta, one of the leading faces of the BJP in Tripura.

When contacted, Datta said, “I am very happy that I have been given the chance to fight from one of the toughest constituencies. I am not fighting alone here, every party worker is with me in this fight to ensure the lotus symbol gets the highest number of press on February 16.”

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She admitted that irrespective of his political affiliation, Barman always received the blessings of people from the 6-Agartala assembly constituency. “There is always a first time. This time, people of Agartala will be on the side of the BJP, not an individual,” she said.

For BJP MLA Malina Debnath, the fight for Jubarajnagar was complicated by a mini-revolt in her party. Over 100 party youth workers resigned after her nomination, but Debnath says she is unfazed. “I don’t think the revolt of people, who see themselves over and above the party, will make any difference to my prospects. I am happy that I represent a party that respects women and has nominated the highest number of women candidates,” she told EastMojo.

Commenting on why TIPRA Motha nominated six women candidates, party chief Pradyot Kishore Debbarman said, “When women of our society come forward, society prospers. No regional party has ever nominated six women candidates,” Debbarman said, calling this a transformation in regional parties’ politics introduced by his party.

The party has interesting nominations: senior leader Manihar Debbarma, a prominent women leader of the party, will contest from her home constituency Kalyanpur-Pramod Nagar (Khowai District). Debbarma started her political career with the Congress party and joined TIPRA after a brief stint in BJP.

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“Even though Kalyanpur Pramodnagar is a general seat, my party trusted me and I am sure I will be able to live up to the expectations of the party,” she told EastMojo.

Sitting BJP MLA Pinaki Das Chowdhury and CPIM candidate Manindra Das are also in the fray. TIPRA candidate from Bagbasa in North Tripura Kalpana Sinha said, “The importance of women has increased dramatically in the political space. We hope in the days to come, political parties will give women leaders larger space to lead from the front.”

However, the lack of women candidates from the Left Front has raised many eyebrows this time. The party did not make any specific argument for the lack of women’s representation.

Former Rajya Sabha MP and Senior All India Democratic Women Association, the women arm of the CPIM Jharna Das Baidya informed EastMojo that seat sharing adjustment with Congress played spoilsport for the prospects of women candidates.

“There are several constituencies like Badarghat, Kamalpur, and six Agartala that we have given up for the sake of support from the Congress and other Left parties. From those seats, women candidates used to contest elections traditionally. And, finding suitable candidates amidst such complex social composition turns out to be a tough exercise. Now we aim to dislodge BJP and we are working in that direction,” said Baidya.

With 30 women candidates, it is clear that Tripura is doing better than a few other northeastern states. But how many women will make it to the assembly? We will only know on March 2. 

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