In an apparent move for a pre-poll alliance ahead of ensuing Assembly elections in Tripura, a delegation of the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) headed by its president N C Debbarma on Monday left for Delhi to hold crucial talks with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The delegation will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union home minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the issue of separate tribal state ‘Twipraland’ besides possible alliance with the BJP in the coming assembly election scheduled in March.
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The delegation is scheduled to have a meeting with top BJP leaders including DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh, BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav and party’s Tripura election in-charge Himanta Biswa Sarma.
The IPFT leadership said the top brass in the party had arrived at a consensus for having an alliance with ‘a strong and anti-Left political force’.
Debbarma, a hardliner reiterated the party wants to forge electoral alliance with a national political party to defeat the CPI (M) led Left Front in Tripura.
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“But all depends on the BJP. Our core demand is Tipraland, a separate state for indigenous people and a deal can be sealed if both parties mutually agreed on it”, he said adding that things will move forward only if Tipraland demand gets due importance.
On the BJP state president Biplab Deb’s statement against Tipraland, the veteran tribal leader said, “He might have taken a double-standard stand on the issue. We had already a meeting with BJP’s national level leadership on the issue”. The party state president of BJP, Biplab Deb is also expected to be present at the scheduled meeting on the tie-up issue.