Tripura’s The Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) Motha chief and royal Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarman has declared that his party will contest from Dhanpur constituency for the 2023 assembly elections in a fight for the cause of Greater Tipraland.
“Tipra Motha shall fight from Dhanpur. It has been ages that an indigenous party has not fought for Dhanpur, they have only adjusted with either the BJP or Congress. Dhanpur has a high population of Tiprasa people. If we need to fight for the cause of greater Tipraland then we should not leave even a single constituency where Triprasa are in the majority. I have already said we will fight Matabari. Dhanpur is a prestigious constituency, Manik Babu has represented this constituency and even Union Minister Pratima Bhowmik has contested elections from here.
“If we have Tiprasa MLAs from these areas then only Tiprasa land can progress…” said Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarman after a party programme.
Dhanpur is one of the 60 legislative assembly constituencies of Tripura. It is in Sipahijala district and part of West Tripura Lok Sabha constituency. Former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar won Dhanpur constituency in 2018 with over 50% vote share defeating his Congress rival.
Union Minister of State for Social Empowerment and Justice Bhowmik contested the assembly polls from Dhanpur constituency against Sarkar in 1998 and 2018, losing both times. She later contested from the West Tripura Lok Sabha seat in 2019 and defeated sitting MP Shankar Prasad Dutta with a margin of 3,05,689 votes.
Bhoumik has recently alleged that TIPRA Motha was trying to mislead people with its statehood demand.
Debbarman, however, said the demand for statehood was constitutional and those who accuse him of practicing ethnic politics were actually spreading propaganda.
Debbarman appealed to The Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) and Left leaders to join TIPRA Motha for the cause of Tiprasa. Debbarman urged the tribal leaders not to think about their positions but the interests of Tiprasa.
Tripura’s tribal politics has been witnessing a series of upheavals over the last few weeks. These include BJP’s claims that it is confident of winning 50-plus seats alone in the 2023 assembly elections.
TIPRA Motha’s demand for Greater Tipraland seeks to include every tribal person in the proposed state, including those living outside the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council areas, besides providing support to Tiprasa or Tripuris in other states such as Assam and Mizoram and in the bordering areas of Bangladesh through a development council.
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