Agartala: TIPRA chief Pradyot Kishore Debbarman has urged the ruling party ally IPFT to unite and fight elections with one symbol citing similarities in the political demands of both parties.
“We have similar political demands. It doesn’t matter what would be the name of the new political entity after unification. I am ready to give up the name of our party. But, since we are on the same page with our political demands, we should fight polls with one symbol,” said Debbarman.
The royal scion called for merger days after IPFT doyen Narendra Chandra Debbarma passed away due to a cerebral stroke. “NC Debbarma has passed away. May his soul attain peace. I would like to urge the IPFT supporters to unite with us. Our unity will make the people in power hear our voices. All of us should speak in the same language while pressing for our demands,” the chairman of the TTAADC’s ruling party told his supporters during his maiden social media message of the year.
TIPRA chief’s efforts to bring a truce between IPFT and TIPRA are not new. From the beginning, TIPRA tried hard to rope in like-minded, smaller political outfits to expand its footprint.
Before the TTAADC elections, IPFT and TIPRA reached a mutual consensus to fight the polls unitedly but BJP succeeded in keeping its junior partner with it. Even later, when IPFT leader Mevar Kumar Jamatia tried to initiate talks with TIPRA, NC Debbarma engineered a coup against Jamatia.
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With the demise of IPFT supremo NC Debbarma, his party had only weakened as many root-level leaders either switched sides with TIPRA or BJP. Debbarman’s call for unity is being heard at a politically significant time as the polls are slated for February 2023.
At a time when the opposition parties like CPI(M) and Congress had been trying to reach out to Debbarman’s party for a pre-poll understanding, his move to invite IPFT for a merger has yet again clarified his political stand. Even the ruling BJP seems worried about TIPRA’s rise in the tribal-dominated belt where the saffron party has as many as ten legislators.
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