Agartala, Jan 31: For the past five-and-a-half decades, tribal-based parties in Tripura tried to play an important position withinside the state’s politics however because of their issue-were resolved or when they raised irrelevant demands.
In June 1967, the Tripura Upajati Juba Samity (TUJS) was formed as the first tribal-based political party raising some tribal-centric demands including the creation of the tribal autonomous body.
After the TUJS, over a dozen tribal-based political parties including Tripura Hills People’s Party, Tripura National Volunteers (a militant outfit turned political party), Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), Tipraland State Party (TSP), Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), National Conference of Tripura (NCT) have been created but over the years these parties suffered a premature death or had to merge with other parties.
Of the 60 assembly constituencies in Tripura, as many as 20 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes. In 2018, eight of these seats had been bagged by the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), 10 by the BJP, and two by the CPI(M).
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According to data posted on Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council’s official website, “Tripura has a rich cultural heritage of 19 different tribal communities. These communities are – Tripura/Tripuri, Riang, Jamatia, Noatia, Uchai, Chakma, Mog, Lushai, Kuki, Halam, Munda, Kaur, Orang, Santal, Bhil, Bhutia, Chaimal, Garo, Khasia, and Lepcha.”
Another wave of Bengali migrants took shelter in Tripura all through the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971.
According to Language Census 2011, Bengali was the mother tongue of 24.14 lakh people in Tripura. This represents two-thirds of the 36.74 lakh population, and nearly three times the 8.87 lakh who speak Kokborok — a language of the Tibeto-Burman family and the mother tongue of the largest tribal group.
In 2018, the BJP won 36 seats with a vote share of 43.5 percent, followed by the CPI(M) which got 16 seats with a 42.2 percent vote share, while the IPFT bagged eight seats and a vote share of 7.5 percent.
With a population of over 28 lakhs, the people of Tripura will vote for the Legislative Assembly elections in 2023. The Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (Tipra Motha) has also released a list of its candidates.
With a population of over 28 lakh, Tripura will vote for 60 Assembly seats, with the BJP searching for its second consecutive term in office after uprooting the decades-old CPM government in 2018.
