Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 8: Within hours of the BJP-led government headed by Manik Saha was installed in the office in Tripura on Wednesday, the union government initiated talks with the local tribal party Tipra Motha launched by the Tripura royal family to bring it on its side.
The Tripura royal Pradyot Manikya Debbarma, who had earlier announced that his party would negotiate only with the party that would agree to provide a separate Tipraland for the local tribals, claimed on Wednesday that it was the “wish” of the people that he joined negotiations with the BJP.
He claimed that the Union home minister Amit Shah has agreed to appoint an interlocutor and begin the process for a “constitutional solution for the indigenous people of Tripura,” Debburma tweeted after a meeting between his Tipra Motha and the BJP. The meeting was meant to discuss an alliance between the two parties but there was no response from the BJP so far. Sources, however, said there was no talk on Wednesday of the Tipra Motha joining the government.
Earlier in the morning, Manik Saha was sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Tripura for the second term as old guards of the BJP and those closely associated with the RSS were not inducted in the Tripura Council of Ministers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, BJP national president J.P. Nadda, and the Chief Ministers of four north-eastern States attended the ceremony.
Eight Ministers of Cabinet rank took oath alongside Chief Minister Dr. Saha. The strength of the Council of Ministers in Tripura with a sixty-member Assembly is 12 and three ministerial berths are left vacant. In all, eight Ministers including the CM, from the BJP and one from its ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), which had won the lone seat, were inducted into the Cabinet. Three cabinet berths have been left vacant which are expected to be offered to Tipra Motha if it agreed to join the government.
Tripura Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya administered the oath of office and secrecy. Of the nine members of the Cabinet, four were new faces, while five Ministers, who were in the earlier Cabinet, found a place in the fresh line-up. Old BJP guards and those closely associated with the RSS who contested Assembly polls and won — Rampada Jamatia, Pratima Bhoumik Kishor Barman and Ramprasad Paul — were not inducted. In the Assembly elections, the BJP had won 32 seats and the ally IPFT only one seat in the 60-member House.
Dr. Saha had been made Chief Minister earlier in 2022, replacing Biplab Kumar Deb, in a brand renewal exercise after it was found that his popularity rating was plummeting on account of the poor law and order situation in Tripura’s hinterland.
About half an hour after the swearing-in ceremony ended at the Swami Vivekananda Maidan, Debbarma was seen entering the state guest house where Shah and BJP president J P Nadda were staying. Earlier in the day, he tweeted his photo with party president B K Hrangkhawl. “Tipra has not compromised! Wait and watch,” he tweeted.
Following a visit to the Tripura Sundari temple in Udaipur, Gomati district, Shah arrived at the guest house almost two hours after Debbarma. The Assam Chief Minister and BJP’s North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) chairperson Himanta Biswa Sarma was also present at the meeting.
Sources said BJP had offered three Cabinet berths to Motha, one more than what it offered its alliance partner IPFT in 2018. The IPFT has one Cabinet minister this time, having managed to win just one seat in the recently concluded election.
BJP insiders said the party was trying to get TIPRA Motha on its side to ensure smooth sailing in the state in next year’s general elections. One of Tripura’s two parliamentary seats is reserved for tribals, making TIPRA Motha a favourite to win it. If TIPRA Motha does not join the government, it will become the principal Opposition party in the Assembly as it has 13 seats, two more than the CPI(M).
TIPRA Motha was floated in 2021 for a state of “Greater Tipraland.” But the nature of its core demand has undergone quite a few changes. Discussions between Debbarma and Amit Shah had ended on an inconclusive note before the elections. Over the weekend, the BJP again began its attempts to get TIPRA Motha on board. Sarma on Saturday said the BJP was “prepared to talk” to the party about everything except the Greater Tipraland demand.
The following day, Debbarma reiterated that his party would discuss only if “constitutional solutions” for tribal welfare were on the table and given in writing. Debbarma said he was ready to sit down with the BJP but the dialogue had to be about Constitutional rights on land; political, economic, and linguistic rights; and the rights of tribal ‘samaj patis’ or clan leaders.
