Agartala: The 2023 assembly elections in Tripura had been considered to be historic in multiple aspects. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party which used to have a meager presence in Tripura before 2018 secured a second successive victory but the biggest highlight of the decisive electoral battle was the political understanding between Left Parties and Congress, arch rivals who had been fighting against each other since the formation of Tripura as a full-fledged state.
The Congress and CPIM governed the state in turns for a long period with Left being the party to rule Tripura for 25 years in a trot since 1993. The fall of Left followed by the 2018 election debacle, paved the way for new political equations to come into play. The first five-year of the BJP’s rule in Tripura was nothing short of a political potboiler.
The emergence of the INDIA bloc at the national level with Congress being its nucleus influenced Tripura politics as well. The Left parties and Congress ultimately decided to fight the elections together, setting aside all differences and to some extent they were successful.
In many of the constituencies, the margin by which the opposition was defeated was wafer thin but the experiment couldn’t yield desired results.
In Lok Sabha elections 2024, the INDIA bloc performed well at the national level but failed to make its presence felt in Tripura. The BJP’s victory one year after the 2023 polls was resounding with opposition parties struggling to hold its vote share.
As the poll season winded up, clouds of uncertainty seem to have once again started to hover over the future of the opposition camp. After the 2023 assembly polls, there were three major opposition parties—Tipra Motha Party, BJP and CPIM.
Tipra Motha led by royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarman, eventually struck a deal with the BJP leaving CPIM and Congress to discharge the role of opposition. From the very beginning, the inherent disagreements between CPIM and Congress couldn’t let them gel well.
Neither the parties were seen making any efforts to chalk out an effective floor strategy in the assembly nor they attempted to build a trust-worthy atmosphere for the party cadres to work with each other cohesively. The distance between the allies kept escalating and within one year of the Lok Sabha polls the Left and Congress were apparently standing poles apart.
According to insiders, both the parties are now investing more time to build their own organization rather than focusing on a common minimum program.
Sources in the CPIM said that the party had been looking at rejuvenating its core workforce. “In 2017, CPIM had 98,000 active party members. Getting the status of party member in our party is different. There are multiple stages to qualify for party membership. Apart from that, there are several affiliated bodies where someone can easily register. The total strength of members putting all affiliated bodies together was several lakhs. In 2023, our total party membership dropped to 37,000 including 7,000 new members. So there is a big fall in party membership and a lot of people who were active members of the party discharging multiple responsibilities let go of their membership. In the CPIM state conference held in the fag end of January 2025, all these issues came up for discussion and a resolution has been passed to expand membership,” the source added.
Another senior leader who wished to remain anonymous said that his party had been putting much emphasis in the tribal areas which was once considered to be a strong bastion. “Keeping this in view, Jitendra Choudhuri had been re-elected as the party state secretary. He is performing a dual responsibility of Leader of Opposition and Party State Secretary because he has an acceptance in both the Bengali and non-Bengali pockets,” the leader told EastMojo.
Insiders also indicated that this time the party would be strategic in its approach. “In the last elections, there was a communication failure.
The talks between Congress and CPIM continued for a long time and the seat-sharing arrangement was finalized at the eleventh hour because of the confusion among the voters. We were also late in sending out the message our Chief Ministerial candidate—Jitendra Choudhuri comes from the tribal community. This time, those strategic failures will not be repeated,” a senior leader added.
On being asked about the future of CPIM with Congress, the leaders gave generic answers. “It is too early to comment,” most of them commented.
The journey of the Congress party in Tripura was also similar to a roller coaster ride. In 2018, the entire Congress vote shifted to BJP lock stock and barrel. The Party again saw a ray of hope after Pradyot Kishore Debbarman took over the reign of Congress and in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the party secured the second position with around 30 percent vote share.
When Debbarman left Congress followed by controversies over Citizenship Amendment Bill and NRC, it was again done and dusted until leaders like Sudip Roy Barman and Asish Kumar Saha, who were MLAs in the BJP joined the party. After a long hiatus, the party opened its account in the state assembly in the 2023 assembly elections with three MLAs.
However, political observers opined that the Congress could win those three seats because of the political understanding with the Left.
Insiders in the Congress said AICC has asked all the Pradesh Congress committees to build the party from scratch. “After 2024 results, Congress high command has passed clear instructions to all the state units to build the party. The state chiefs had been assigned with specific targets and based on that work were underway. The Congress workers and leaders are working consistently in the remote areas of the state which is an unlikely development for a party like Congress,” the source added.
According to Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee President Asish Kumar Saha, the party is trying to reinvent itself. “It is a fact that we lost elections but the strategy of the party is different. We have been asked to work as much as we can and let the people know how the corporate friendly policies of the BJP are impacting the lives of common people. To safeguard the constitution, every congress worker needs to work overtime,” he said.
The Congress leaders have also hinted that the understanding with the Left might not continue in the next elections. Congress CWC member and MLA Sudip Roy Barman, in conference of the party’s OBC cell categorically stated that the seat-sharing with Left might not occur in the next elections.
“We are often asked about the seat sharing with CPIM. It happened once and if not required we will not do any understanding in future. But, one thing I must admit is that the friends of the CPIM party after fighting elections together realized that Congress is a large-hearted party,” Roy Barman said.
The indications from both the parties are clear that none of the constituents of the INDIA bloc are looking at each other as companions for the time being and even if they had to seal a deal that would be purely election-centric and transactional in nature.
Explaining the relation between CPIM and Congress in Tripura, veteran journalist Sekhar Dattas said, “The CPIM and Congress could be best explained as uneasy bedfellows pulling together when it makes and also trying to be separate when opportunity comes. Both the parties should realize that a political combination can emerge successful only if they have a strong strategy behind it. The political calculation and equations are far more complex than it appears because ultimately it is the voters who decide the fate of a political party.”
Also Read | Why is no one hearing the silent cries of Tripura primates?
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