Guwahati: With just three months left for the assembly elections, Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) MLA Mevar Kumar Jamatia resigned from the state assembly, making him the seventh legislator to walk out of the ruling coalition in the northeastern state.
Former tribal welfare minister Tipraha joined Swadeshi Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) Motha after submitting his resignation to Tripura Assembly Speaker Ratan Chakraborty a day earlier.
“I was not happy there, [as] I could not perform my duties as I wanted. There was a lot of interference,” Jamatia told ThePrint. “Even the promises made before the elections were not followed. No follow up action was also taken by the High Powered Committee constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs [back in 2018 on the socio-economic, cultural and linguistic problems faced by Tripura’s tribal communities],
Jamatia was also quoted Saying That the exodus of seven ruling MLAs – four from the Bharatiya Janata Party and three from the IPFT – had proved that “the performance of the government is not up to the mark”.
Four of the seven MLAs – Jamatia, Dhananjay Tripura, Brishketu Debbarma (IPFT), and Barbo Mohan Tripura (BJP) – have joined TIPRA Motha. whereas Sudip Roy Burman and Ashish Sahai With the BJP now with the Congress, another party MLA Ashish Kumar Das was disqualified for “gross misconduct”.
Despite the series of exits, the Manik Sarkar government faces no threat in the 60-member Tripura Assembly, which has 34 and five MLAs from the BJP and IPFT respectively. The exit first started in 2021 with Brishketu Debbarma resigned from IPFT.
political implications
Jamatia, who was elected from Asharambadi constituency of Khowai in 2018, also dropped out of IPFT, in which he had served as general secretary till March.
In February, ahead of the 2021 Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council elections, both Jamatia and Debbarma came out. Favor TIPRA Motha. However, controversy arose over the question whether IPFT should be merged with TIPRA Motha, in which Jamatia had opted for the merger. After serving as the party’s general secretary, Jamatia was elected as the president, but an internal dispute with IPFT supremo NC Debbarma led to him. lose office,
Jamatia was selected in the cabinet reshuffle in May after Biplab Kumar Deb was made the Chief Minister in place of Manik Saha of the BJP. dropped from cabinet.
“He himself was not able to stay with the IPFT. It is natural for him to criticize the ruling coalition. Why did he not raise these issues about the intervention earlier? Tripura BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharjee told ThePrint.
Responding to a question about the way forward with the IPFT, a BJP spokesperson said, “The existing alliance will continue but the BJP has decided to contest all 60 seats alone for the elections.”
TIPRA Employees Union Head Sunil Kalai said tribal leaders were finding an ally in Motha supremo Pradyot Manikya Debbarma, a descendant of the former royal family of Tripura.
“It is not about the alleged failures of Mevar Kumar Jamatia, but about the strong leadership of the Maharaja (Pradyot Debbarma). These tribal leaders are finding safety and security with the Maharaja,” said Kalai, who is an assistant professor in the journalism department at Tripura University.
“Other than his emblem, NC Debbarma-led IPFT has nothing left. They are finished at the grassroots level. ,
IPFT, established in 1996, has been demanding a separate state for tribals. tipperland, Though it is facing a tough challenge from TIPRA, Motha won the Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council election last year on its demand for Greater Tipperand. TIPRA Motha is also expected to emerge as the winner of 20 tribal seats in the upcoming elections.
(Edited by Tony Rae)
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