The Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) has said that its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, should honour the support from the indigenous communities and choose a tribal to lead the 60-member Assembly on Tuesday.
The IPFT also wants an “honourable sharing” of portfolios after the swearing-in later this week.
The BJP-IPFT combine won 18 of the 19 seats reserved for the State’s tribes where Assembly elections were held on February 18. Polling in another seat was countermanded after a CPI(M) candidate died of heart attack.
‘Hard-won victory’
The IPFT won eight of the nine seats it contested across areas under the Tripura Tribal Autonomous District Council. Of the BJP’s 35 seats, 10 are in the tribal belt. “We have made no demands because this has been a hard-won victory together. We have just said we should honour the people in the tribal areas who voted spontaneously for the alliance. They want to see an indigenous person to lead the State,” Narendra Chandra Debbarma, the 81-year-old leader of IPFT, told The Hindu on Monday.
“We have also not sought a specific number of berths. It is for them [BJP] to offer us. Their Central leaders are arriving tomorrow [Tuesday] for a meeting of the newly elected MLAs. If they desire, they can have a meeting with us too,” Mr. Debbarma said.
The IPFT chief rejected reports of any differences between the two allies.
