‘Small dream’ & ‘big party’: Why Patal Kanya’s move to join BJP is causing a churn in Tripura tribal politics

Last Sunday, the Tripura Peoples Front (TPF)’s chief Patal Kanya Jamatia joined the BJP. This marked a significant political development that was seen as part of the ruling party’s strategy to take on the TIPRA Motha which has had a meteoric rise in state politics, especially in state tribal politics, since its inception early last year. Some of Patal Kanya’s comments have roiled tribal politics, including her description of the separate tribal state demand — which forms the core of Tripura’s tribal parties’ political agenda — as a “small dream” and her praise for Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb as the “first honest Tripura CM”, whom she had earlier called an “illegal immigrant”.

Who is Patal Kanya Jamatia?

A tribal rights activist Patal Kanya floated the TPF in June 2014. She filed petitions in the Supreme Court over alleged large-scale illegal immigration from Bangladesh into Tripura, seeking the identification of anyone who came to Tripura after July 1948, their declaration as illegal immigrants and their deportation. Her cutoff demand for the Indian nationality predates the Indira-Mujib pact and even Assam’s model for National Register of Citizens (NRC) revision. She now calls Deb to be the “best CM” to have served in Tripura, but she had alleged four years ago that he was an “illegal immigrant” from Bangladesh. She said the Government of India is duty-bound to provide safety and security to Indian citizens, highlighting that tribals turned into a minority in their own state with their population plunging from over 90 per cent in 1949, when Tripura had merged with the Indian Union, to around 30 per cent now. She also held agitations against the BJP-led Centre’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on the grounds of further minoritisation of tribal communities.

Tipraland and Greater Tipraland

Tipraland is a proposed separate state for tribals whose demand was floated by the BJP’s ally Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), which bagged 8 seats in the 2018 Tripura Assembly polls on this plank.

The TIPRA Motha’s demand for “Greater Tipraland” is an extension of the IPFT’s demand, which seeks a separate state for tribals of Tripura and those tribals living outside the TTAADC. Greater Tipraland is envisaged not to be confined only to Tripura, seeking to provide support to “Tiprasa” or Tripuris spread across other states of the country like Assam, Mizoram etc. as well as those living in Bandarban, Chittagong, Khagrachari and bordering areas of neighbouring Bangladesh through a Development Council.

What is Patal Kanya’s stance now?

After joining the BJP, Patal Kanya claimed tribals do not need Tipraland or Greater Tipraland but need greater unity. She said she joined the saffron party for building “srestha” Tripura. She said she did not want to be associated with the Greater Tipraland demand, terming it as a “small dream”. “As I aim to take Tripura forward and strengthen the Tiprasa, I joined the strongest party today,” she said.

Her comments drew fire from other state tribal parties. The TIPRA Motha’s founder Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma said the BJP should contest the state’s all 60 Assembly seats alone in the 2023 polls and not look for an alliance with the TIPRA Motha since the party’s new leader is calling the latter “small party” and its core agenda “small dream”. “A new leader in the BJP has made a statement that TIPRA Motha is too small a party to survive and also mocked our constitutional demand for Greater Tipraland. Yes, BJP is a very big party. They are the richest party in the country. They have bigger organisational strength than us. But we are a small hill-based party. So, let BJP fight in all 60 seats. We are ready to fight in 30-35 seats. In the end, the people will decide who is a small party and who is a big party”, Pradyot said. Sending a terse message to the BJP, he also said the saffron party should clarify its position over Patal Kanya’s comments, without which, he added, “there would be consequences”.

IPFT spokesperson Mangal Debbarma also dismissed Patal Kanya’s claim, saying she was being an “opportunist”. “Both IPFT and TIPRA Motha have reached some position, either in the state government or ADC. Patal Kanya Jamatia’s TPF didn’t reach anywhere. I think her joining the BJP and these comments might be efforts to become MLA or something and cover up her organisation’s shortcomings,” he said.

Politics in the hills

Apart from sending out a strong message to both tribal parties, Patal Kanya’s statement is politically significant for various reasons. First, it indicates the BJP’s impending foray into tribal belts in a bid to carve its own space among tribal outfits. The ruling party, which virtually outsourced its tribal politics to the IPFT in the 2018 polls, is expected to take the tribal outreach upon itself. It seems to be building a counter-narrative for tribal voters, as against the IPFT and the TIPRA Motha’s narratives, both of whom, despite being opponents, are pushing their politics centred on their demand for a tribal state. Commenting on the issue, Mangal Debbarma said “people still love the idea of Tipraland” and would “reject” Patal Kanya, whose support base, he claimed, would shift to them.

Given the performance of different parties in the last few elections, no one could make any significant inroads in the hills (tribal belts) since 1972, when the Congress secured almost 40 per cent of tribal votes alone due to factors such as the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war and Tripura’s role in it, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s popularity, and Tripura’s statehood, among others. Since then, no non Left-party could gain popularity in the state’s tribal belts. The Congress “outsourced” its tribal politics to regional parties like the Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti (TUJS), with whom it later formed a coalition government in 1988, and to the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT) after 1993.

The Left parties gained popularity among tribals through its anti-monarchical frontal organisation Gana Mukti Parishad (GMP). However, since the collapse of the Left bastion in Tripura in 2018, there does not seem to be any notable signs of the Left’s support base in the hills.

Like the Congress, the BJP first chose a tie-up with local tribal parties and allied with the IPFT in the 2018 polls. However, the IPFT fared poorly in subsequent polls including the tribal council elections.

Alliance equations

Patal Kanya’s entry into the BJP has raised various questions on possible political equations and alliances for the 2023 Assembly polls. The

BJP recently claimed it would win over 50 out of 60 seats alone. However, going alone in the hills might be slippery for the incumbent party in 2023, since the statehood issue championed by regional parties still resonates more among tribal voters than the BJP’s plank of development and unity. This was evident in the 2021 Tripura ADC elections in which the TIPRA Motha barely three months after its inception managed to bag 18 out of 28 seats.

If Pradyot, who was upset by Patal Kanya’s comments, hardens his stand vis-a-vis the BJP, it might be damaging for both parties. Tripura’s 20 Assembly seats are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (STs). The TIPRA Motha seems to have a remarkable hold over tribals, who account for nearly 30 per cent of the state’s population.

Political conflict

Barely 72 hours after Patal Kanya’s comments that drew sharp reactions from Tripura’s tribal parties, the BJP and the TIPRA Motha supporters clashed at Kalshi village. Political clashes are not a new development in the hilly terrains of the state. After the Kalshi clashes, a Motha leader said that the village committee polls were not held in the tribal council areas even 10 months after their party came to power in the ADC. He said the BJP’s “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” claim cannot be fulfilled without involving the tribal councils. He charged that the ruling camp was blocking development in the hills by discriminating against village monitoring committees, which were provisionally formed by the ADC in the absence of such elected bodies. A BJP leader, on the other hand, said his party would not leave any space for the TIPRA Motha, accusing the latter of allegedly attacking his party workers and creating unrest in the hills. The village committee elections, which were earlier deferred due to the Covid pandemic, has become a major cause of friction between the BJP and the Motha, with the conflict between the two camps likely to intensify in the coming days.