The TIPRA Motha Party swept the 28-member Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections on Friday, winning 24 seats and sharply reducing ally Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) presence to four seats from eight in the previous tribal council polls.
The landslide victory came with a higher vote share and significant winning margins in several constituencies, though detailed figures were still being compiled by the commission.
As in the previous TTAADC election, the BJP’s other ally, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), and opposition parties including CPI(M) and Congress failed to win a single seat.
Polling for the 28-seat TTAADC was held on April 12 and recorded more than 83 per cent voter turnout.
Despite being allies in the state, the BJP and TIPRA Motha contested against each other in the council elections. The BJP’s other ally IPFT, along with CPI(M) and Congress, also fought independently.
In the last TTAADC elections in 2021, TIPRA Motha had won 18 seats, while the BJP secured nine and one seat went to an independent candidate. The BJP later lost one district council member after he joined TIPRA Motha.
TIPRA Motha was floated in 2019 by royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarma after he resigned from the Congress.
Following the victory, Debbarma appealed to supporters to maintain peace and refrain from violence.
“When we fight, the dopha is affected. Love has won and hatred has lost today. If you don’t indulge in violence, that will be the real victory. The TIPRA Motha, BJP, IPFT, CPIM and Congress are all brothers. We are Tiprasas. Please don’t indulge in violence,” he said.
BJP minister Ratan Lal Nath said, “People’s mandate is the ultimate. I had said earlier also that if voting had been done in terms of development in the last 7.5-8 years, then BJP would have won. If the vote is done based on sentiment, then it will go in a different direction.”
Covering nearly 70 per cent of Tripura’s geographical area, the TTAADC is home to almost one-third of the state’s population.
The council was formed in 1982 under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution and was later brought under the Sixth Schedule to grant it greater autonomous powers.
The TTAADC was ruled largely by the CPI(M) until 1990-95, except in 2000 when the Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti (TUJS) governed the council. The IPFT ruled from 2000 to 2005, before TIPRA Motha captured power in 2021.
