Major Setback to BJP in Tripura, IPFT’s Women Wing Withdraws From the Alliance

As a major setback to the BJP-IPFT alliance, the women’s wing of the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) - The Indigenous Women's Front of Tripura (IWFT) announced severing links with IPFT on Sunday. IWFT told in a press conference about their decision to contest separately in the 20 constituencies (all women candidates) reserved for tribes in the upcoming Tripura assembly elections, polling scheduled on February 18.

On January 25, BJP officially announced forging an alliance with IPFT, the party whose sole demand has been the formation of a ‘separate tribal state’ by merging tribal belt districts. As per the seat sharing agreement, BJP will contest in 51 constituencies and IPFT in 9 seats in the total 60 legislative assembly seats.

IWFT leaders claimed that their parent organization IPFT rejected their demand to give one seat from the nine seats shared between the IPFT and the BJP. Sandhyarani Debbarma, IWFT president said that among all the political parties, CPI (M) has shown the highest respect for women by allotting seven seats to women candidates.

While the ruling Left front has released the list of all its candidates, as of now, the BJP released names of 48 candidates in which the seven MLAs who have switched to the BJP last year (Six MLAs from TMC and one from Congress), got a place in the list. However, with dissidence over ticket distribution, Tripura BJP Vice President Subal Bhowmik decided not to contest for the election, as he was denied the constituency he opted for. Reportedly, Bhowmik was expecting the Bordawali constituency for which the BJP nominated the sitting MLA Ashish Kumar Saha, who was one of the six Congress MLAs from the state, who first joined the TMC and later switched to the BJP. On the other side, Congress has released their list of 56 candidates

The BJP’s vote share in the previous assembly elections held in 2013 was just 1.54%, however, with the joining of seven MLAs last year, the saffron party has recently emerged as main opposition in the state side-lining the Congress.

CPI(M) leaders accused the BJP in Tripura for indulging in polarisation tactics by deliberately creating a divide between the Bengalis and Tribal voters. CPI(M) state secretary Bijan Dhar said, “There is no conflict between the two communities(Bengalis and tribes). It’s just the BJP playing the polarising politics that they do in the rest of the country.”

Addressing a public rally in Mohanpur on January 29, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar attacked the BJP government at the centre. He said that the central government has drastically reduced the fund allocation under MGNREGA scheme. He said that the BJP “serves only the interests of the corporates” by grabbing land from the tribes. He added that the BJP agenda is dividing people on the line of religion, caste and creed.