Tribal outfit Tipra Motha to contest in 42 of 60 seats in Tripura

Tipra Motha, which is making its assembly poll debut, is contesting in 42 of the total 60 seats in the February 16 Tripura elections. Around 20 of these are tribal seats while the remaining 22 are non-tribal ones.

The party has fielded former MLA Ashish Das from Kamalasagar assembly constituency. Das had resigned from the BJP last year and joined Trinamool Congress and later left it to join Tipra Motha.

Led by royal scion, Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman, Motha is looking to branch out into the non-tribal areas of the state.


Tipra had won the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council elections in 2021. This Council's ambit of control covers over two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491 sq km area with a population of about 1.2 million people, of which 90% are tribals. This accounts for 20 assembly seats.

In 2018, the BJP contested in 11 seats in the tribal areas while its ally, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), contested in nine. While IPFT won eight seats, the BJP wrested 10 seats and two seats were bagged by the CPM.

In 2018, the BJP won a total of 36 seats in the 60-member assembly while IPFT won eight.

BJP and Tipra had discussed seat-sharing and the possibility of an alliance, but it did not work out. Even the Left parties and Congress had extended its offer to Tipra to join the opposition front.

Deb Barman had said, "I have stated earlier and I am saying now that unless we get in writing from the Government of India on a separate state, we are not entering into an alliance. Since 1976, all parties of Tiprasa had gone to Delhi and entered into an agreement before the election and post-election, Tiprasa did not get anything."

He said, "We went to Delhi and listened to what they had to say. They have not given anything in writing. There will be no alliance in this election."