TIPRA Motha – an apolitical organization of Tripura, finally, has decided to step into political arena and to contest in upcoming TTAADC elections for which dates are yet to be announced.
TIPRA Motha chairman and ex-TPCC President Pradyot Kishore Debbarman on Friday finally revealed that his organization Tripura Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA), that had been formed as an apolitical front, would fight the ensuing Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections.
Royal scion of the Manikya dynasty of Tripura also sought support from all the regional political parties to join his fight. “TIPRA has decided that it would fight TTAADC elections from the ground and for that I am requesting all the regional political parties to either merge with TIPRA or fight the elections from a single platform. And, all the parties are requested to clear their stands within the next few days or a week”, Debbarman said.
According to Debbarman, talks are in progress with all the regional political outfits of the state and if things do not work out, TIPRA will chalk out its way on its own.
Meanwhile, placing forth a new demand, he said, in the Friday’s meeting of TIPRA’s state committee, a resolution has been passed under which the organization will voice for a “greater Tipraland”. By the term, greater Tipraland, he tried to indicate an autonomous body that would hear the plights of Tripuris settled in various places outside the state including Patharkandi, Hailakandi, and Bangladesh’s Khagrachari. He said, the situation of Tripuris is not up to the mark and there must be a body that would try to address their grievances and subsequently arrange rehabilitation for them. He later referred to the demands of proscribed outfit NSCN and Mizo Council that are pressing for greater Nagaland and a greater Mizoram. He later admitted that his demand was only intended to the welfare of Tiprasa community and he did not want to hurt the sentiment of any community. He also referred to a similar demand being raised by Bengali people living in Silchar as they were feeling neglected.
However, Pradyot’s intention behind using the term “Tipraland” may be also to allure IPFT, the alliance partner in BJP-IPFT government that had so far maintained a good distance with Pradyot. However, many of the political commentators earlier predicted that some announcement like this would come one day or the other since the creation of Pradyot’s TIPRA and his association with INPT and TPF later made it crystal clear. On being asked on the national political parties he tactically skipped the question saying, when he was in Congress, BJP and CPIM were his ideological rivals but now he had his own ideology and neither the BJP nor the CPIM were his rivals right now.
