Open to forming electoral alliance with Tipra Motha, but won’t agree to separate state demand — Tripura Congress

Agartala, Jan. 9 (PTI): The opposition Congress in Tripura on Monday said it was open to the idea of forging an alliance with the Tipra Motha for the upcoming assembly elections.

The party, however, clarified that it would not support the regional outfit’s demand for ‘Greater Tipraland’, under any circumstance.

“We don’t mind forging an electoral alliance with Tipra Motha, but we cannot concede to its demand for a separate state. We do agree that more autonomy should be accorded to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC),” the president of the Tripura Pradesh Congress, Birajit Sinha, told PTI.

He pointed out that the tribal council was created under sixth schedule of the Constitution, when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister of the country.

The Tipra Motha was floated by scion of erstwhile royal family Pradyot Deb Barma in February 2021, two years after he quit the post of Congress president.

Deb Barma, on several occasions, stated that Tipra Motha would stitch alliance with any party that gave assurance in writing that it would concede to the party’s primary demand.

Sinha, on his part, claimed, “I think no political party will agree to its demand for a separate state.”

He noted that the BJP, which formed an alliance with the IPFT before the last assembly elections, had also not agreed to its ally’s demand for a separate state.

Talking about poll preparations, he said, “The Congress wants all anti-BJP forces to join hands and defeat the saffron camp.”

Last month, in a letter to the Election Commission, undersigned by CPI(M)’s Tripura state secretary Jitendra Chowdhury, state Congress president Birajit Sinha and leaders of the CPI, the RSP, Forward Bloc and the CPI-ML, the parties urged the poll body to take proactive measures to conduct elections in a free and fair manner.