Tripura Agartala/UNI : The ruling BJP has reacted sharply to the realignment of Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) with the scion of the erstwhile royal family of Tripura Pradyot Kishore Deb Barman-led Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA), and termed the development "unfortunate".
IPFT has said none of the alliance commitments made by the BJP during the 2018 assembly election has been fulfilled yet, compelling them to join hands with TIPRA to fulfill their core demand--Tipraland for indigenous people of the state.
“I shall not make any comment on the performance of the government in the past three years from here but I must say BJP did not keep its promises based on which BJP and IPFT fought together in the assembly election. As it was not possible for BJP or IPFT alone to unseat the communists, who had been in power for 25 years, we came together for a single cause with certain understandings,” IPFT general secretary and Tribal Welfare Minister Mevar Kr Jamatia.
The BJP state president Dr Manik Saha, annoyed with the IPFT leadership questioned, “ While being in alliance with BJP and holding ministerial berth, how can IPFT go for alliance with another party?
"They should inform us about their plan and the reason why they want to go with another entity before making such an announcement, which is in accordance with alliance principles.”
“We have informed the central leadership about the development and IPFT leaders would be called to explain how they could ally with TIPRA while still being a coalition partner with BJP in the current government. We haven't discussed seat sharing for the ADC polls yet and IPFT was expected to hold an official meeting on their demands before jumping into another forum,” Dr Saha pointed out.
Meanwhile, Mevar Kumar Jamatia, IPFT General Secretary and minister in the Biplab Kumar Deb government, declined to respond to Dr Saha's comments and asserted his party's stand with a one-liner--“We are for Tipraland.”
He further said that TIPRA called all the regional parties for unity to achieve the development goal of indigenous people not only living in Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (ADC) but also the inhabitants of the capital city and other towns of the state, Barak Valley of Assam and Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
“We find the demand of Greater Tipraland for our people in our own land is justified and it is important for all the indigenous parties to come together leaving aside all other philosophical and ideological barriers – it’s not for politics but for development of our people,” Jamatia argued.
IPFT-BJP alliance was made with the assurance that BJP will give free hand to IPFT for running ADC, elevate the status of ADC with greater autonomy and power and separate development initiative for indigenous people of Tripura, he said.
A high power committee for socio-economic, cultural and linguistic development of the hill people was formed but there hasn't been any outcome.
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