Agartala: TIPRA Motha chief Pradyot Manikya Debbarma’s speech, bidding farewell to the “political stage” at a campaign rally in Tripura’s Khowai district on February 14, just two days before the state goes to the assembly polls has caused a flutter and some confusion among supporters.
The Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance or TIPRA Motha is largely being seen as a ‘game changer’ in the run up to the assembly polls. The party’s main objective is the creation of a new state of ‘Greater Tipraland’.
On Tuesday, its chairman, the royal scion, said:
“This is my final message. You wouldn’t see the Bubagra [‘king’ in Kokborok language] anymore on a political stage after this. After this, the Bubagra wouldn’t be seen in this way. You won’t see Bubagra anymore. This is my last message to you all.”
In the speech, he also appealed for votes for his party’s candidates in the fray.
Debbarma’s speech went viral on social media. Soon, local television channels picked it up. Supporters wondered what this could mean for the party and its prospects in this election.
Debbarma uploaded a voice note on Twitter to say that outlets were sensationalising what he had said. He said that while he won’t be seeking votes after this election, he will be with the movement until a constitutional solution is found.
— Pradyot_Tripura (@PradyotManikya) February 14, 2023
“Sanyas from [renouncing] electoral politics does not mean going out of people’s hearts. I am going nowhere before finalising a constitutional solution of our demands…I fought this election alone, with help of my people. To serve them I don’t need to be in electoral politics. A section of media says I have given up and left politics. You wouldn’t see me in electoral politics any more, or hear speeches but I am there for my people,” Debbarma said.
Adding that he will not seek a political position any more, Debbarma said, “Please don’t miscommunicate, please don’t misunderstand.”
Although Debbarma blamed media for not understanding what he had meant to say, some in his party felt that this announcement could play spoilsport.
In subsequent tweets, including on Thursday, Debbarma sought to impress that he will remain with his party.
Those people who are laughing that I have quit politics should realise that I have not quit TIPRA MOTHA and that I said I will not seek votes from a political Manch ! I am and will always remain with MY PARTY till I achieve the constitutional solution for our people . #GodiMedia
— Pradyot_Tripura (@PradyotManikya) February 15, 2023
Debbarma was the state Congress president and led the party during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. After a brief break from politics, he started TIPRA Motha as a socio-cultural organisation. Ahead of the Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections he introduced it as a full-fledged political outfit. It won the polls.
Many believe that it was raw emotion that won the polls for TIPRA Motha in 2021.
The demand for a separate state was initiated by the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura in 2009. The party is the expression of a decades-old, Scheduled Tribe-based anti-left political discourse in the state. However, its message was put to use best by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which realised that without winning the tribal-majority seats, it could have no hope of topping the Left government.
This is exactly what it eventually did. However, IPFT lost a degree of popular support as the impression grew that it has not been able to convince the BJP to act on its demands.
This is where Debbarma made his entry. Frustrated IPFT supporters moved to Motha.
Debbarma has termed these assembly elections as the ‘one last fight’ for Tiprasa (collectively, all tribal communities) to achieve their rights.
However, TIPRA Motha’s push for a ‘Greater Tipraland’ is largely undefined, as is the path it will take to achieve it if it comes to power. Debbarma’s personal draw and singular financing of party activities are understood to work with the emotional factor of a separate state, for his party.
In speeches, he says repeatedly that he wishes to spend his wealth on good deeds for “his people.”
TIPRA Motha has fielded 43 candidates in these elections, 23 among them are in unreserved seats, and 22 candidates in these seats belong to non-tribal communities. This has made the Motha a formidable force because if it can consolidate most of the tribal votes in its favour in the unreserved seats, and pull a section of anti-BJP votes, it can indeed prove to change the game.
Many political watchers believe that the BJP tried to pull Debbarma to its side, but not to much avail, even though a section of the Motha’s leaders are believed to have wanted an alliance with BJP.
This led Debbarma to say publicly, just before the filing of nomination, “I am telling my party leaders, if you want to go, please leave now. Many of us want to get something and become MLAs or ministers. Your kind is not ready to surrender to this ‘something’. I cannot cheat on my people, I am committed to our demands.”
The CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chowdhury, who also belongs to the Tiprasa community said that Union home minister Amit Shah’s alleged move to send a chartered flight for Debbarma was in violation of the Model Code of Conduct norms. Chowdhury said he knew of a secret deal that Debbarma had been intimidated into forging with BJP.
Three days ago, he once again asked TIPRA Motha leaders to not be attracted to money.
“The BJP comes with money, perhaps it has come now as well. I am telling the leaders, don’t be trapped by the money. If you do, people will not forgive you, ever. Just resist the temptation for three days, they won’t come again,” he said.
In a TV interview four days ago, Debbarma also said that he is ill and even when he will not remain, his people will.
Debbarma, notably, did not enter into a seat sharing deal with Left-Congress combine either, and stuck to his condition that any understanding would have been based on a written assurance of a constitutional solution to the Greater Tipraland demand.
He did, however, appear at a rally of an Independent candidate supported by the Left-Congress alliance a day before he announced his ‘electoral politics sanyas’.
Edited by Soumashree Sarkar.