Tripura royal scion and chief of the TIPRA party – Pradyot Debbarma has dared former chief minister and CPI-M veteran Manik Sarkar for an electoral battle at the latter’s home constituency.
Former Tripura CM and senior politburo member of CPI-M Manik Sarkar has been consecutively elected from the Dhanpur assembly constituency since 1995.
Pradyot Debabrma further said that the TIPRA party would break the tradition of tribal parties contesting from only 20 ST reserved seats in Tripura.
“TIPRA will field candidate in Dhanpur assembly constituency in the upcoming state elections. We will break the age-tradition of tribal parties contesting in only ST reserved seats,” Pradyot Debbarma said.
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“It has been decades that no tribal candidate contested elections (in Dhanpur) despite the place having a sizable voters’ number belonging to indigenous communities,” said Pradyot Debbarma.
He added: “Their (indigenous communities) voices have been ignored.”
“Wherever there is a tribal population, we will field candidates,” the TIPRA chief further said.
Notably, at least 50 leaders from CPI-M, Congress and BJP joined TIPRA during an event at the Ujjayanta Palace in Agartala, Tripura on Thursday.