After a thumping victory in Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) polls, all the 18 winning candidates of the regional political party, Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA), led by royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarma will take oath of office on April 20, ending the Communist Party of India’s (Marxist) (CPM) three-term rule of the council.
“On 20/04/2021, Oath taking ceremony of Chief Executive Member and Executive Members will take place at NUAI Auditorium Hall, Khumulwng...,” read part of a notification signed by TTAADC chief executive officer Balin Debbarma.
Pradyot Kishore is expected to take oath as the chief executive member of the 30-member council. With this poll, his party has emerged as the second biggest political force in the state, barely two years before the state goes to assembly polls. Pradyot resigned from the Congress in 2019 and floated TIPRA Motha this year with the chief promise of forming a Greater Tipraland by including indigenous population living outside the TTAADC region in Tripura and other Indian states like, Assam, Mizoram and some parts of neighbouring country Bangladesh.
TIPRA won 18 of the 28 TTAADC seats that went to polls on April 6, leaving the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the second position with nine seats. One seat was won by an independent. Results were declared on April 10. Over 85 % turnout was recorded in the polling. The TTAADC, formed in 1982, covers close to 70% of Tripura’s geographical area and over 30% of the state’s population.
{{/usCountry}}TIPRA won 18 of the 28 TTAADC seats that went to polls on April 6, leaving the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the second position with nine seats. One seat was won by an independent. Results were declared on April 10. Over 85 % turnout was recorded in the polling. The TTAADC, formed in 1982, covers close to 70% of Tripura’s geographical area and over 30% of the state’s population.
{{/usCountry}}BJP had earlier said that the party didn’t field enough candidates in the council polls to get majority of its own. The BJP fought the polls in alliance with the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), which failed to get even a single seat.
An independent political analyst said that TIPRA’s rise was partly due to the charisma enjoyed by royals such as its leader and partly due to the search for an alternative political force. ” Generally, it is seen that the ruling party in the state wins any kind of local polls. But this district council polls came with a different result. It happened partly due to charisma of the royals among the indigenous people and secondly, since they wanted an alternative to the CPM and the BJP,” he said.
The council polls were scheduled for May last year but were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Governor RK Bais acted as its administrator in the interim.