Tripura Assembly polls 2023: Will CPI(M), Congress come together to dethrone BJP?
Both the CPI(M) and the Congress have hinted at a possible alliance of anti-BJP parties to dethrone the ruling BJP-Indigenous Front of Tripura ( IPFT) combine in the state
Ahead of the Tripura Assembly polls scheduled to be held next year, the Opposition parties, especially the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or the CPI(M), and the Congress have hinted at a possible alliance to dethrone the ruling Bharatiya Janata party ( BJP)-Indigenous Front of Tripura ( IPFT) combine that has been in power since 2018.
Leader of Opposition and former chief minister, Manik Sarkar recently said that his party’s Politburo had already decided and allowed their local leaders to initiate issues related to poll alliance in their respective states.
“Our target is to intensify our movement against communal politics to defeat the divisive forces. Our party’s top body has already asked the local leaders to look into poll alliance issue between secular forces. So, any secular and democratic force is welcome to join the movement unitedly,” said Sarkar.
“It’s nothing new that we try to bring the anti-BJP voters together wherever elections are going on,” he said.
He said that the BJP has already started losing its public support due to which they have resorted to violence. Unlike 2018, the BJP would face problem to get vote share from non-Left voters in the upcoming elections.
“ People have already started raising their voices against the violence triggered by the ruling party. If anyone thinks that the CPM supporters are and will be the only victims of the violence, then they are wrong,” Sarkar added.
Manik Sarkar served as chief minister of Tripura for two decades since 1998. Being known as the longest serving chief minister, Sarkar had ended insurgency and brought peace to the state. He is also the lone Politburo member from the state.
Earlier in September, Congress legislator Sudip Roy Barman batted for poll alliances with anti-saffron parties to dethrone the incumbent BJP-IPFT government in the upcoming elections.
“Alliance will happen in any form. We shall do anything to ensure people that people get freedom from the misrule of the BJP,” Roy Barman said.
Six-time MLA, Roy Barman said his political career started with the Congress since his college days. He made his debut in 1993 Assembly polls against veteran Left leader and former chief minister Nripen Chakraborty and lost the poll. He jumped to the Trinamool Congress in 2016 and then to the BJP the subsequent year and won 2018 Assembly polls. He served as the minister of health along with other charges for a year after which he was dropped from the Cabinet due to his alleged differences with the then chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb. Later, he quit the party and resigned as legislator in February this year, returned to the Congress and retained his seat.
In the meantime, TIPRA Motha party led by royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarma has emerged as a vital political party ahead of the polls with its slogan of Greater Tipraland, a proposed separate statehood for the indigenous communities of Tripura, other northeastern states and neighbouring Bangladesh.
The Greater Tipraland demand helped the party to increase its foothold in the indigenous hamlets after the IPFT failed to fulfil their proposed Tipraland for the indigenous community, according to political experts. This resulted in the victory of TIPRA Motha in the TTAADC polls that was conducted in April last year, within two months of the party’s formation.
Amidst Vijaya Dashami celebrationsi in October, different political leaders including former chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, Congress legislator Sudip Roy Barman and CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury were seen visiting the head of TIPRA Motha at Ujjayanta Palace. Later, Pradyot told that it was only a non-political meeting.
Political experts claimed that the CPI(M) and the Congress share a history of rivalry in the past several years that might halt the possibilities of an alliance between them. The Congress had been in Opposition in the two decades when the Left was in power.
“If both the CPI(M) and the Congress come together, then the BJP might be cornered. But, there are other Opposition parties, especially TIPRA Motha. If the BJP is to be removed from power, then the contest should be 1:1,” said veteran political analyst Chandan Dey. However, he expressed his doubt over possibilities of an alliance of all Opposition parties.
Another political analyst Swapan Bhattacharya said, “ Nothing is impossible in politics. As no formal announcement has been made, it is still in dark whether any alliance will be formed.”
