Tripura Village Council polls

A CORRESPONDENT

AGARTALA, Dec 30: As Tripura is gearing up to go for village council elections, the Bharatiya Jata Party has formally announced their willingness to contest the polls to the 586 Village Committees alone, but also hinted that the party is open for alliance with the Indigenous People’s Front of Twipra, the powerful regiol front in Tripura. VCs are counterpart of the panchayats in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council The elections are scheduled to be held in February. In its meeting held on Tuesday, the State committee of the BJP has opposed the separate State demand of the IPFT and instead demanded to elevate the TTAADC into a ‘State council’ which will receive direct funding from the Centre and will enjoy more power.  “We oppose the separate State demand as it is impractical considering the geographical and ethnic condition of the State and will create division among the tribal,” State BJP president Sudhindra Dasgupta said adding that Twipras are not the lone tribe in the State. There are many others like Reangs, Halams, Chakmas etc. A separate State excluding them is not possible. Though the party decided to contest the election alone Dasgupta did not ruled out the possibility of an alliance. When asked about alliance he said, “We have decided to fight it alone.” However, sources in the party said the State committee has raised the demand for State council only after getting sigl from the Centre. It also said if the IPFT leave the demand for a separate State the BJP Central leadership may consider forming an alliance. Meanwhile, State Election Commission has started preparations for the elections and today released the list of polling stations. The draft voters list will be published in the first week of January.