Ending years-long dominance of CPM in hill areas, newly floated TIPRA Motha led by Royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarman secured majority with 18 seats in its kitty out of a total of 28 seats in Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council (TTAADC).
In remaining 10 seats, ruling BJP won in 9 seats while one seat went to an Independent candidate. However, BJP’s ally IPFT failed to open account, so also CPM and Congress.
“The outcome of the elections to the TTAADC is a major setback for the ruling alliance partner Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) alliance as well as CPM which was governing the ADC till May 17, 2019 before its 5-year tenure expired”, Agartala based Political analysts opined.
Speaking to media after trends became clear, TIPRA Motha chairman Pradyot Kishore Debbarman thanked people for keeping trust on TIPRA Motha and he assured that he would work to justify the trust through holistic development of people living in ADC areas irrespective of ethnic affliction. He appealed to all to ensure peace and asked the supporters to refrain from violence.
Pointing out that he wants to change the culture of post-poll violence, Debbarman said, “I want to change this and directed my supporter not to spoil the joy of winning the poll by indulging in unwanted activities. All of us including the Bengalis, Manipuris and Hindustani people voted us. Hence, peace should be maintained for the sake of our State”.
According to sources, Pradyot Kishore Debbarman will become the Chief Executive Member (CEM) of ADC and he will stake his claim to the Governor of Tripura, Ramesh Bais.
Amalgamating various local tribal based parties and leaders and members of other parties, the TIPRA Motha headed by Tripura’s royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman was formed just a few months ago and fielded candidates in all the 28 seats while the BJP-IPFT alliance also put up candidates in all seats. Tripura’s oldest tribal based party Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), a former ally of the Congress, is also a partner of the ‘TIPRA Motha’.
The Communist Party of India -Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Front, the Congress and other parties have also fielded candidates in the 28 seats – but drew a blank – of the TTAADC, which has a jurisdiction of over two-thirds of Tripura’s 10,491 sq km area and home to over 12,16,000 people, of which 90 per cent are tribals.
Over 85 per cent of the 8,65,041 voters on Tuesday had cast their votes in the election to the TTAADC, which was constituted under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution in June 1985 for the socio-economic development of the tribals, which constitute one third of Tripura’s four million populations.
The five-year tenure of the TTAADC, considered as mini-state Assembly in terms of political significance, expired on May 17 last year and the BJP-led state government promulgated the Governor’s rule by appointing a retired IAS officer as Administrator next day for a period of six months and then extending the term for another six months on November 17. After months of political tussle, the BJP and IPFT weeks before the TTAADC polls on April 6 had decided to jointly fight the elections. (With inputs from IANS)
