Emergence of new party changes political scerio

FROM A CORRESPONDENT

Agartala, January 19 : Emergence of a new political party, the Twipraland State Party has dramatically changed the political scerio in the hilly areas of Tripura which is going to hold election of 586 Village Committees, counterpart of Panchayat in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council, sometime next month.

The new party along with their youth wing Young Tripura Association demonstrated their strength in Agartala on Monday when they organised a Raj Bhawan abhijan. A four member delegation led by the president of TSP Mr C R Debbarma met the Governor Tathagata Roy and submitted the demand for a separate state comprising the areas under TTAADC.

The impressive show by the party is siglling the changing scerio in the hilly areas of the state where the Indigenous People’s Front of Twipra was all poised to pose a major challenge for the ruling Left Front. The new party is actually a breakaway faction of the IPFT which also fighting for a separate state. Though the party was formed few months back, it gained strength recently when the influential vice-president of the IPFT Harith Debbarma defected to join the new party.

Both the parties have announced that they will fight the election separately which will confirm a vertical split in the opposition vote giving a tural advantage to the ruling Left Front. N C Debbarma, president of the IPFT, however, refused to give much importance to the new party and said they will not be able to make any impact in the election. He also accused them for playing in the hands of the CPI(M).

The CPI(M) state secretary Bijon Dhar said such splits are tural as the party don’t have any ideology and based on opportunistic politics. He is confident that the voters will repose their confidence on Left Front for continuation of the development works going on in the hilly areas of the state. The Bharatia Jata Party and the Congress also announced that they will contest the election but not yet confirmed if they will form alliance with any regiol party. Leaders of both the parties are visiting hilly areas for selection of candidates. Another regiol party the Indigenous tiolist Party of Tripura also will contest the election.