New Delhi: Ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Tipra Motha, Tripura’s main opposition party, is all set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government.
In the 60-member Tripura legislative assembly, Tipra Motha has 13 members, and is likely to get two berths in the state cabinet.
“Tipra Motha is set to join the BJP-IPFT (Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura) coalition government before the parliamentary elections. The date for swearing in of the ministers has not been finalised yet,” said Rajib Bhattacharjee, BJP Tripura unit president, according to Times of India.
The decision on the part of Tipra Motha to join the BJP-led coalition government comes days after Pradyot Deb Barma’s party signed a tripartite agreement with the Centre and the Tripura government for a lasting solution to the problems of Tripura’s indigenous tribal population.
The alliance with Tipra Motha on the part of the BJP is necessitated by the fact the former has been able to consolidate the vote of 30% of the state’s tribal population. Tripura has two Lok Sabha seats, and tribal votes are crucial in one of the seats to secure a victory. In 2014 and 2019, BJP had pocketed both seats.
A day before the tripartite agreement was signed Tipra Motha held talks with Tripura Congress chief Ashish Kumar Saha. However, the talks did not fructify into an alliance.
TIPRA Motha chief Pradyot Debbarman had threatened to go on fast to secure “constitutional rights” for tribals of Tripura.
Lately, the BJP has wooed regional players – like Jayanth Choudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh and Janata Dal (United) of Nitish Kumar in Bihar – to consolidate its base ahead of Lok Sabha polls. In Uttar Pradesh, day before yesterday, it inducted a minister each from RLD and SBSP in the Adityanath ministry to ensure no further change of mind by fickle alliance hoppers like Jayant Chaudhary and Om Prakash Rajbhar.