Agartala: Dissent is growing among Tripura rivals-turned-political allies, the BJP and TIPRA Motha after Pradyot Kishore Debbarman, the founder of TIPRA Motha party secured a BJP ticket for his sister Kriti Singha Debbarman.
She replaced the sitting BJP MP from the East Tripura parliamentary constituency Rebatia Tripura, who has been a staunch critic of the TIPRA Motha Party since its inception. The rapid political developments that commenced with the signing of an accord between the TIPRA Motha and the Government of India have seemingly not gone down well with both the BJP and TIPRA Motha Party footsoldiers.
Pradyot’s move to join the government, following the signing of the accord, unsettled several leaders who had joined the forces with him to provide more weight to the war cry “Greater Tipraland”—generally perceived as a demand for a separate state.
Nominating his sister as a candidate for East Tripura, an ST-reserved parliamentary seat, further prompted his followers to raise questions about his political integrity. In a widely circulated video that surfaced on social media a week ago, posters of Debbarman were burnt by people. Several party MLAs are said to have switched their phones off to avoid questions from the grassroots workers. MLA from Ambassa assembly constituency, Chittaranjan Debbarma, became the first TIPRA Motha MLA to lay the internal bickering surrounding the accord and post-agreement developments to bare.
Last week, Debbarma gave an interview to some local Kokborok Channel and expressed his anguish against the accord signed between his party and the Government of India. He cited an agreement that his party—Tipraland State Party—signed with TIPRA as an instrument of merger. His party was not alone, he said.
Many small and marginal parties dissolved their existent organisational independence to merge into TMP based on the consensus that demand for a separate state would never be compromised. EastMojo accessed the document. Clause four of the agreement states: “No alliance will be forged with any one of the national political parties without a written assurance from such national party(ies) on the fulfilment of our core demand for Tipraland Statehood when such national party(ies) give assurance shall he or is already in power at the Central Government. We made this agreement today on the 18th day of February. 2021.”
According to Chittaranjan Debbarma, the TIPRA Motha Party’s agreement with the Centre has no mention of the term “Tipraland” hence making it clear that the agreement which they signed prior to joining the TMP was breached.
Despite repeated attempts, Debbarma denied giving any interview to EastMojo.
However, Pradyot kept telling his workers that the demand for “Greater Tipraland” was ideological and would never be diluted. He termed the accord as a stepping stone towards the next phase of talks. He also expressed a firm belief in the Centre. He also defended his position stating that his sister’s nomination as a BJP candidate will further solidify their stance.
“Someone needs to speak for us in Delhi. If we send someone wrong, he or she may create predicaments for his party and the accord,” said Debbarman.
He also asserted that symbols don’t matter. However, the party’s root-level leadership seems still confused. The opposition parties have already started a campaign stating that TIPRA Motha is inching closer to a merger with the BJP.
Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman appreciated the BJP’s top leadership for the success of “Operation Lotus” on the “pineapple”, the party symbol of TIPRA Motha. Meanwhile, leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party also seem disheartened by the party’s move to import a paratrooper leader as a candidate for East Tripura. Several leaders have taken to social media platforms and made cryptic comments to express their disappointment.
Among them was the brother of the Fisheries Minister of Tripura Himanghsu Das, who said, “Neither the people of Tripura know her, nor she knows the state.” Social media is flooded with such comments. The party has also not yet kick-started the campaign in the East Tripura constituency, unlike West Tripura. West Tripura candidate Biplab Kumar Deb has been travelling across constituencies to overhaul the party’s preparedness for the polls.
“TIPRA Motha’s whole campaign was structured around finding faults of the BJP. This party had always tried to portray the BJP as an anti-tribal political party. Now rubbing shoulders with them for a joint campaign might look awkward and embarrassing for many of us,” a leader of the party’s Janjati Morcha has said.
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