Guwahati
Dealing a severe blow to the Congress and the Left that were expecting a tie-up with the Tipra Motha for the Lok Sabha polls to take on the BJP, the Pradyot Debbarma-led party joined the Manik Saha government in Tripura.
Two legislators of the main opposition party Animesh Debbarma and Brishaketu Debbarma were sworn in as ministers in the Manik Saha cabinet at the Raj Bhavan in Agartala. Animesh was the Leader of the Opposition till 8 am this morning when he resigned from his post. Birshaketu is a lawyer-turned-politician. Governor Indrasena Reddy Nallu administered the oath of office to the them.
The Tipra Motha is the second tribal party to join the BJP-led State government with the IPFT already in the alliance dispensation.
The move came five days after the Tipra Motha signed a tripartite agreement with the Centre and Tripura government “to amicably resolve all issues of indigenous people of Tripura relating to history, land and political rights, economic development, identity, culture and language”.
“Along with this, it was agreed to constitute a Joint Working Group/Committee to work out and implement the mutually agreed points on all the above mentioned issues in a time-bound manner to ensure an honourable solution. In order to maintain a conducive atmosphere for implementation of the pact, all stakeholders shall refrain from resorting to any form of protest/agitation, starting from the day of signing of the agreement,” the Centre had stated.
Tipra Motha chief Pradyot, who had just started his fast-unto-death when the Centre asked him to come to Delhi and sign the tripartite agreement on March 2, said, “I have given a clear message to our ministers who joined the government that we shall not make the same mistake committed by the IPFT after they joined the government with the BJP and became ministers. They went silent after becoming ministers. When policies were against our people, they stayed silent. This will not do.” He attended the oath-taking ceremony. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha and other ministers were also present on the occasion.
On his decision of not joining the Government, Pradyot cited the IPFT instance. “N C Debbarma was the IPFT president and Mevar Kumar Jamatia was the general secretary. They both became ministers. When the president and general secretary of a party become ministers, the cabinet berth becomes a high priority and the party starts looking smaller. I will not join the BJP government and shall keep pressure from outside. I have told our ministers that if it seems like work is not done, you have to leave your Cabinet posts and come to us,” he added.
Pradyot pointed out that for the first time in Tripura’s recent legislative history, five out of 11 ministers are tribals namely BJP’s Santana Chakma and Bikash Debbarma, IPFT’s Sukla Charan Noatia and TIPRA Motha’s Animesh and Brishaketu.
In the 60-member Tripura Assembly, with 32 seats BJP alone on its own has the majority while the IPFT has one, the Tipra Motha has 13 MLAs, CPM has 10 and the Congress 3 seats. Bypoll to vacant Ramnagar seat likely to be held along with Lok Sabha polls.
BJP had won both the Lok Sabha seats in Tripura in 2019. With Tipra Motha joining the NDA fold, BJP’s task ahead seems easy.
