Agartala, January 28, 2023: Tripura ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s allied partner Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) on Saturday agreed to contest in five assembly constituencies in the general election slated to be held on February 16 next.
Ahead of 23rd assembly election, BJP is contesting the general election with IPFT which had poured water on the dream of “Greater Tipraland” through the TIPRA Motha chairman Pradyot Kishore Debbarman.
Incidentally, in the 2018 assembly elections, the IPFT contested 9 seats and won 8 seats.
Addressing a press conference at Agartala city on Saturday evening, Chief Minister Prof Dr Manik Saha said “BJP had formed an alliance with the IPFT in 2018 through a common minimum program, had won and formed the government. During the five years of the coalition government, the two parties have jointly worked for the development of the people. Therefore, in these five years, they did not raise their voice about the basic demand of IPFT for ‘Tipraland’. Hence, once again BJP will contest elections in alliance with IPFT.”
He said that the IPFT will contest in five seats in the upcoming assembly elections. They have agreed to field candidates in Takarjala, Ramchandraghat, Asharambari, Kanchanpur and Jolaibari assembly constituencies.
In this regard, Youth IPFT president Shukla Charan Noatia said, “Many thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for selecting the former president of the party late NC Debbarma for the posthumous Padma Shri”. The IPFT has agreed to remain in alliance with the BJP on the directives of the party’s central committee and current president Prem Kumar Riang and general secretary Prashanta Debbarma for the assembly elections. Accordingly, the party will contest in five seats.
He said that Jayanti Debbarma, daughter of late NC Debbarma, will contest in Asharambari constituency. The list of candidates for the remaining four seats will be announced tomorrow, he added.
On this day, the BJP state president Rajib Bhattacharjee made it clear that the BJP believes that the welfare of the people is the first priority for the development of the state. Therefore, people are seeking overall development of the state through development. He clearly said that BJP does not support ‘Greater Tipraland’ or ‘Tipraland’. In this regard, Shukla Charan Noatia said that the problem of people in Tripura will be solved through the coalition government.
Meanwhile, in a private discussion after the press conference today, IPFT General Secretary MLA Prashanta Debbarma said, TIPRA Motha has hijacked our slogan. It is true that the united struggle was discussed with them. But, morally the IPFT did not agree to join them in the fight. Therefore, IPFT have decided to contest the election together with the alliance partner BJP.
