Buoyed by a landslide victory in West Bengal’s assembly polls held earlier this year, the Trinamool Congress is now eyeing BJP-ruled Tripura, where the party looks to make a strong lead in the next assembly elections to be held in early 2023. National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee is flying to Tripura to try to build a base for the party and an organization that has so far been confined to Bengal.
The space left by the Left parties and the Congress and the hope that voters are dissatisfied with the status quo, seems to have prompted the TMC to try and infiltrate. Its leaders in the northeastern state are trying a BJP-like strategy in the West Bengal elections in their presence, reiterating that they will be able to capture power easily, law and order has collapsed in the state, job creation. less and that the ruling BJP workers have spread the reign of terror.
TMC’s rallies and events have been repeatedly targeted by a group of people who the party alleges are BJP’s safe havens’, though the BJP has denied the allegations. Banerjee and her convoy have been attacked at least three times. Two party MPs from West Bengal – Dola Sen and Aparupa Poddar – were also attacked on Independence Day in South Tripura district. Observers say the TMC may get some leverage and sympathy for the attacks, but to be able to translate it into votes, an organization that is still nascent has to be created.
Banerjee and TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh have been targeting BJP leaders and workers, especially former Congressmen within the BJP and the CPI-M, for inducting them into the party. It remains to be seen how successful this effort is. However, the number of leaders who have crossed so far has been few and far between. A former Congress MLA, Subal Bhowmik, who later joined the BJP and returned to the Congress again, and Prakash Das, a former Congress minister, are some of them. Banerjee, however, said optimistically that by the end of December, committees would be formed at all booths in the state.
The Tripura unit of the BJP observed ‘Dhikkar Diwas’ (condemnation day) on August 13 to protest the Trinamool Congress’s conspiracy to create a ‘chaotic situation’ in the state. Tripura BJP chief spokesperson Subrata Chakraborty is clearly not happy. Chakraborty argues that the TMC, a regional party in Bengal, is trying to gain the tag of a national party by trying to enter Tripura. To be a national party it requires at least six percent of the national vote. His colleague, Tripura BJP general secretary Tinku Roy, feels that the Trinamool leader is not keeping pace with the state’s politics. A sentiment that TMC leaders echoed about BJP leaders visiting Bengal ahead of the elections.
They stay in posh hotels one after the other and stage plays. He does not even have a basic idea of the geography of Tripura. He had also targeted the slogan Khela Hobe and said that the most important democratic process cannot be compared with sports.
TMC has not had any electoral presence in Tripura since its inception in 1998. In 2016, six Congress MLAs, led by former TPCC president Sudip Roy Burman, had joined the party. These MLAs later joined the BJP ahead of the 60-member assembly elections held in 2018, on the plea that they did not get any support from Mamata Banerjee’s party during their crisis. TMC filed nominations for 24 seats in the 2018 assembly elections, but could not win a single one. Received a single seat and only 0.3 percent vote share.
The BJP, which won the election with 36 seats and 43.59 per cent vote share, formed the government, while the CPI(M), which ruled the state for nearly 25 years, got 16 seats despite a 42 per cent vote share. The Swadeshi Progressive Regional Alliance (IPFT), which is now in alliance with the BJP, won eight seats. The state elections were largely fought between the Left Front and the BJP-IPFT alliance.
The Congress, which was the main opposition party, had broken into the last assembly elections due to the cannibalism of its support base by the BJP. However, to complicate matters, a newly emerged Tipraha Swadeshi Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) led by former Congress state president Pradyot Kishor Deb Burman has drawn into the political puzzle of the border state.
Deb Burman, who was the state unit president of the Congress, quit the party in September 2019 citing differences with the high command. A month later, he announced the name of his new organization – TIPRA, which was initially a social organization but, in 2020, was changed to a political party.
TIPRA surprisingly won 18 of the 28 seats in the Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections in the first half of April this year, when the BJP won nine seats and an independent candidate. TIPRA’s endorsement is clearly the prize that many will try to garner, given the electoral math. TMC is apparently trying to do the same.
TMC’s WB General Secretary Kunal Ghosh recently met Tipraha Swadeshi Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) President Pradyot Kishor Debbarma. Though the leaders said that it was just a courtesy visit and there was no talks on forming an alliance before the next elections, speculations remain rife.
However, Debbarma has left the door open. If a political party can give us a constitutional solution to the problems of the indigenous people, we can form an alliance with that party. (the alliance partner) must agree in writing for a separate Greater Tipperland by forming a Tribal Council. He told reporters. The TTAADC accounts for two-thirds of the state’s territory and is home to indigenous peoples, who make up one-third of the state’s population.
Tripura has about 30 to 31 percent tribal population and about 7 to 8 percent minority population. Malloy Ghatak, a senior West Bengal minister who recently visited the state, pointed out that tribals dominate at least 20 of the 60 seats, while minorities are the deciding factor in at least five. However, while arithmetic is known. It is not known whether the political problem of Tripura will be so easy to solve. Leader of Opposition Manik Sarkar had recently said, they (TMC) came to the state several times, but (always) returned empty handed.
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