Tripura Polls: No alliance, Pradyot Manikya announces after no written assurance on separate Tipraland

By Payal Mehta
Tripura [India], January 27 : Amongst the buzz of a possible alliance with BJP, the Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (Tipra Motha) Chief Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barma has clarified on Friday that 'no alliance' will be formed with anyone in the upcoming state assembly polls.
Sharing a video for his supporters on Twitter, he said, "A lot of people have speculated in the last three days that we are about to form an alliance. I have said it before and I am saying it again that unless we get in writing from the government of India that our demands will be met constitutionally, I will not form any alliance. I don't blame the people who don't believe it. Because in 46 years, after 1977, every regional Tiprasa political party has gone to Delhi and has come back with an agreement before the election. But after the election, Tiprasa doesn't get anything."
"I have said this before and am repeating it, we will not compromise on our demands. We went to Delhi to discuss and we heard them. If we didn't go, they would've mentioned it that despite the invitation, we skipped the meeting," added Pradyot.
While speaking about the meeting, Pradyot said, "One thing is clear in my heart that they haven't given anything in writing. I want to inform all my TIPRA Motha warriors and the entire Tiprasa that there will be no alliance in this election."
"Either we'll win or we'll lose, but this time we'll fight for one last time," Pradyot assured his supporters in the video.
While the larger sentiment of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) both in the centre and state remains the same, they cannot be seen forming an alliance with a unit that is demanding a separate state, that is 'Greater Tipraland' for indigenous tribes, confirmed the sources.
According to the sources, while Congress and the Left have come together, the ruling BJP is still in search of an appropriate partner.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has declared an official list of 43 candidates with several new entrants.
Former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar is sitting out of the electoral fray this time, confirmed the sources.
According to the sources, Congress will get 13 seats in alliance and four others will be given to the smaller parties.
Earlier on January 19, the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) was also invited by Pradyot to enter into an alliance with his unit.
The INPT alliance, which came together with BJP in 2001, diverged in 2009. The party again allied with BJP in the 2018 Tripura Legislative Assembly election and won 8 seats out of 9 contested seats.
With a population of over 28 lakhs, the state of Tripura will vote for 60 Assembly seats and the ruling BJP will be searching for its second term in office after uprooting the decades-old CPIM government in 2018.