'Talks with ex-royal Pradyot Debbarma's party only if...': Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma

The BJP-led government retained power in Tripura in the recently concluded elections winning 33 seats while Debbarma’s newly established party emerged as the second largest party.

"This is a great victory and reaffirmation of faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The (BJP) karyakartas of Tripura worked very hard and we are very grateful to them. We owe a lot of our gratitude to the great people of Tripura," the Assam Chief Minister was quoted as saying by NDTV.

"Tipra Motha has raised certain issues for the development of the tribal people. Without dividing the state of Tripura, we are ready to ... talk to them and resolve the grievances of the tribal people. But we cannot talk about Greater Tripuraland," Himanta Sarma asserted.

Debbarma had formed his party to highlight the rights of the tribal population in the state and Greater Tipraland has been central to his poll campaign.

Ahead of the elections, Debbarma had said his party was keeping equal distance from the ruling BJP and the Congress-Left alliance, implying that he had no intention to ally with either of the two.

The first round of the talks between the two failed after the tribal party stuck to its statehood demand and the BJP did not agree.

Home Minister Amit Shah had even invited Debbbarma to discuss their request for the creation of Greater Tipraland that would benefit indigenous communities but Debbarma declined the offer saying that "unless we get in writing from the government of India that our demands will be met constitutionally, I will not form any alliance".