AGARTALA: The relatively newly formed TIPRA party in Tripura, led by royal scion Pradyot Debbarma, is likely to emerge as the ‘king maker’ following the assembly elections in the state.
The TIPRA will fight in a triangular contest for power in Tripura, which will also have ruling BJP-IPFT alliance and newly forged Congress-Left Front alliance.
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Although the TIPRA refused to enter into any pre-poll alliance with either the BJP or the Congress, it has, however, not ruled out the possibility of a post-poll alliance.
Notably, the TIPRA party in Tripura has been maintaining that it will support any other party only if it gets a written assurance on its demand for a separate state of Greater Tipraland.
It may be mentioned here that the TIPRA party had won 18 out of 30 seats in the elections to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) held in 2021.
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With the hope continuance of the support for the party in the tribal belts of Tripura, the TIPRA is leaving no stone unturned to woo the voters in the TTAADC areas and win all 20 seats from the belt.
The 20 seats in the tribal belts of Tripura holds the key to formation of government in the state, as it comprises 33.33% of the total seats in the state assembly.
Notably, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), ally of the BJP, has ceded much ground to TIPRA party in the tribal areas of the state.
In the 2018 Tripura assembly elections, the BJP had won 10 of the tribal seats, while its ally – the IPFT – had won eight seats in the area.
However, things turned for the worse for the ruling BJP-IPFT alliance in Tripura, soon after the floating of the TIPRA party by Pradyot Debbarma, as both the parties started to lose its hold in the tribal belts.
Political observers believe that TIPRA’s popularity rose not only because it raised the separate statehood demand but also because tribals still revere the erstwhile royal family and they refer to Pradyot Debbarma as ‘Bubagra’ or king.
The TIPRA party has fielded candidates in 42 out of the total 60 seats in the Tripura legislative assembly.