BJP to contest Village Committee polls in alliance with IPFT and TMP

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would contest upcoming crucial elections to the Village Committees in alliance with its allies -- the Tipra Motha Party (TMP) and the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) though the TMP fought the 2023 Assembly polls independently. 

As the crucial elections to the 587 Village Committees (VCs) under Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) are likely to be held within the next two to three months, all political parties in the state started their political activities in the tribal inhabited areas concentrating the polling in the VCs, equivalent to Gram Panchayats in the non-TTAADC areas. The politically important elections in VC are long overdue.

Tripura BJP President and Rajya Sabha MP, Rajib Bhattacharjee said that his party would contest the elections in alliance with IPFT and TMP.

"The BJP believes in coalition Dharma as our former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has formed NDA with 22 to 23 parties. Our present Prime Minister Narendra Modi also maintained the coalition system of governance. We would fight the elections to the VCs under the TTAADC collectively after consultation with our two allies TMP and IPFT,” Bhattacharjee, also a Rajya Sabha member, told the media.

He said that BJP’s Janajati Morcha, the tribal wing of the ruling party, has already highlighted the good work of the BJP-led coalition government for the welfare of the tribals, who constitute one third of Tripura's little over four million population.

On Sunday, the BJP organised a state-level programme – 'Empowering Janajati, Empowering Tripura' and highlighted the good work done by both the state and Central governments.

Announcing that such event would be held in district, sub-divisional and block levels as well, Bhattacharjee said that the BJP-led government has always giving priority for the development of the tribal inhabited areas and spending more funds in various developmental projects including construction of road, water supply, health, housing and livelihood in the tribal-dominated blocks.

At the instance of the state BJP government, the union government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi resolved the 23-year-old Reng tribal issue permanently by rehabilitating the internally displaced families in the state, he said adding that as many as 18 Eklavya Model Residential Schools have been sanctioned for providing proper education to tribal students.

Around 37,584 displaced Reang tribals (locally called Bru) in different phases migrated from Mizoram in between 1997 and 2009 after ethnic troubles in the neighbouring state and following a quadripartite agreement, signed on January 16, 2020, settled in 12 locations in four districts of Tripura - North Tripura, Dhalai, Gomati, and South Tripura.

The TTAADC, constituted under the Sixth Schedule for the socio economic development of the tribals, has 587 VCs, for which elections were supposed to take place in January or February 2021.

Although the five-year tenure of the VC expired in February 2021, the elections could not be held due to the Covid-19 pandemic and court cases.

The TMP, which has been governing the politically important TTAADC since April 2021, has also been demanding ‘Greater Tipraland’ (a separate state for the tribals) under Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution.

The ruling BJP, opposition CPI-M, and the Congress have been opposing the demand. After signing a tripartite agreement with the Centre and the Tripura government on March 2 last year, the opposition TMP joined the BJP-led coalition government on March 7 (2024) and two of its MLAs - Animesh Debbarma and Brishaketu Debbarma - became ministers.

The BJP along with IPFT and the TMP together fought the recent Lok Sabha elections in Tripura though the TMP contested the assembly polls in 2023 separately.