Talks Going on About Merger of TIPRA Motha and IPFT

AGARTALA: The leaders of the TIPRA Motha have started discussions with the ruling Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura ahead of the elections in the state of Tripura. This step is being seen as a major setback for the opposition parties CPI(M) and Congress who were expecting to partner with them for the 2023 elections

According to reports, a delegation of IPFT led by its president Prem Kumar Reang met with Pradyot Kashyap, the head of TIPRA Motha in a hotel on Saturday. Pradyot Kishore is the head of the erstwhile royal family of Tripura and has the support of a large number of indigenous people of the land.

After that, Prem Kumar Reang mentioned: "The IPFT is an alliance partner of the BJP. We are still in the alliance… Our main demand has been Tipraland or a separate state since 2009. We allied with the BJP in 2018 and won… Bubagra (Pradyot Kishore) is working hard to save dofa (community) and Tiprasa (tribals)… Supporting him is very important now. We have… started the process of fighting the 2023 assembly elections with him."

Speaking about the Central Government's stand on the Tipraland demand, he added, "Nobody is fulfilling our demand. We shall fight together (with anyone) to realise our demand. We raised the Tipraland demand in the state assembly. In each session, our MLAs or ministers raised the demand. But the Centre is not giving any response. The state government can't grant the demand, the Union government can… but they didn't even discuss it."

Pradyot Kishore also mentioned about this merger. He said: "We have both agreed to start the process of becoming a single party fighting under a single flag and symbol against anyone opposed to our constitutional demand of Greater Tipraland. The process has started today; very soon we will be going back to Agartala."

Tripura goes to elections on February 16 for the 60-member Tripura legislative assembly, while the counting will be conducted on March 2.

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