Referred to as Bubagra (king) or Maharaj by the people in Tripura, Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma has taken the State by storm with TIPRA Motha, his three-year-old party that swept the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) polls in 2021.
He declined offers from both the ruling BJP and the Opposition Left Front-Congress combine for a pre-poll alliance, sticking to his demand that they give a written assurance on Greater Tipraland, seen as a Statehood movement. His party is contesting 42 seats in the February 16 Assembly election.
Excerpts from his interview with The Hindu.
The BJP says opting for TIPRA Motha will be a waste of votes.
Everyone possibly said that about the BJP across the country in the past. The BJP mustered a little more than 1% votes in Tripura once. Did anyone say voting for it would go to waste then? People have a right to exercise their franchise. If they waste their votes by choosing us, the same logic applies to the BJP when it contests elections in States like Mizoram, Tamil Nadu and Kerala because they cannot capture power there.
Is trying to scare people an acknowledgement of the threat your party poses?
They should know it better.
TIPRA Motha is contesting 42 seats, 22 beyond the TTAADC seen as its comfort zone. Is this a strategy to split anti-BJP votes via a triangular contest?
We are contesting in tribal and non-tribal areas because we believe in inclusivity and not exclusivity. Unlike an ethnocentric BJP partner (Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura), we believe in taking all Tripura’s inhabitants along; this is evident from our Bengali, Muslim and other candidates. Our strategy is for our own party, not for splitting or consolidating the votes of other parties. We have been called the BJP’s B-team, but as a past working president of the Congress, I know the Congress used to be the B-team of the CPI(M). They are now in the same team.
There are fears that your Greater Tipraland dream will lead to the bifurcation of Tripura.
This fear is being flagged by those who find Virat Kohli’s beard acceptable but not that of a Muslim; by those who are dividing Hindustan psychologically in the name of religion, biryani and pulao. Who has the BJP aligned with? A party (IPFT) that did politics in Tripura in the name of tribal and non-tribal. Tripura does not break when they go to extremes but disintegrates when we demand Greater Tipraland, which we are seeking within the constitutional framework. I don’t want to divide Tripura. Nobody will be evicted, and none discriminated against.
Is Greater Tipraland feasible?
Everything is feasible when we negotiate within the purview of the Constitution. There’s always a middle path that protects the interests of both sides. When the Centre can talk to the Hurriyat and the NSCN (I-M), it can very well talk with us on an issue close to the hearts of the Tiprasa (tribal) people.
Will the TIPRA Motha go for a post-poll alliance if there’s a hung Assembly?
We will not be a part of or support any government until our demand for a constitutional solution is fulfilled. We will not go the IPFT way – keep quiet with a couple of berths in the (BJP-led) Ministry.
Why are you not contesting the polls?
This election is not about me. It is about the issues we stand for. None of our senior leaders, including president Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl, is contesting. We are not interested in becoming MLAs, Ministers or even the Chief Minister. As leaders, we should be able to sacrifice for the core issue.
