BJP, IPFT to continue alliance in 2023 Tripura polls

Ruling BJP is likely to continue its alliance with Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) for the assembly elections early next year, senior leaders of both the parties said.

“We will continue our alliance with IPFT,” a senior BJP leader told ET on condition of anonymity. “The seat sharing discussions are yet to start.”

IPFT enjoys a following in the tribal areas of the state. There are around 20 tribal-dominated seats in the 60-member Tripura assembly.


“We will fight elections together with our ally BJP. We have not finalised the seats which we will contest,” a senior party leader said.

IPFT fought the 2018 assembly polls jointly with BJP and won eight seats.

Recently, however, there has been an exodus of IPFT leaders, including three MLAs, to Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (Tipra Motha) headed by Tripura's royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman.

Tipra Motha has been increasing its footprints in the tribal areas of the state and won the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council elections last year.

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.

Tipra Motha is planning to contest 45 of the total 60 assembly seats. It has been advocating a separate state – ‘Greater Tipraland’ – for indigenous tribes.

A section of IPFT seems to be gravitating towards Tipra Motha with many leaders criticising party president and revenue minister N C Debbarma for his proximity with BJP.

Former state minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia and his wife Gita Debbarma are among IPFT leaders that joined Tipra Motha recently.

Jamatia, who resigned from the state assembly recently, was elected from Asharambari constituency in Khowai district in 2018.

Earlier, BJP’s Burba Mohan Tripura, too, had resigned from the assembly and joined Tipra Motha.

BJP along with its ally IPFT routed the Left Front in Tripura in 2018, winning 44 seats in the 60-member assembly, ending the Left’s 25-year rule that started in 1993. CPI(M) could secure only 16 seats in 2018.