Tipra Motha Party and BJP to not contest Tripura local polls together

Guwahati: Tripura government allies Tipra Motha Party (TMP) and the BJP have decided against partnership in contesting for the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) polls.

The TTAADC, currently under the TMP, administers nearly two-thirds of Tripura’s 10,491 sq km area and is home to over 12.16 lakh people, about 84% of them indigenous.

TMP founder Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma and party president Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl declared the party’s nominees for the upcoming local body election.


Senior TMP leader and TTAADC chairman Jagadish Debbarma will seek re-election from the Jirania seat, while chief executive member Purna Chandra Jamatia will contest again from Killa-Bagma.

On Tuesday, Tripura BJP president Rajib Bhattacharjee had announced that his party would contest all 28 seats.
“The BJP currently has nine members in the TTAADC, of whom seven have been renominated,” Bhattacharjee had said. “Several senior tribal leaders, including state general secretary Bipin Debbarma, will also be in the fray.”
He said that if voted to power in the TTAADC, the BJP would ensure effective and transparent governance aimed at all-round development of the tribal population.

The tribal population accounts for nearly a third of Tripura’s total population of around 4.2 million.
Polling for the politically significant 30-member TTAADC is scheduled for April 12, with counting set for April 17. The council comprises 28 elected members and two nominated by the state government.

The BJP’s other ally, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), has also announced candidates for nine seats.

TMP has been part of the ruling alliance since March 2024. Both TMP and IPFT are tribal-based parties with significant influence in the state’s indigenous regions.

In the 2021 council polls, the BJP had won nine of the 11 seats it had contested, while a BJP-backed independent candidate had emerged victorious before later joining the TMP.

The TMP had won 18 seats and wrested control of the council from the CPI(M)-led Left Front.

The Left parties and Congress have already announced candidates for all 28 seats.