Tribal Parties of Tripura Focuses for the Lok Sabha Polls

Guwahati: Tripura's tribal-based parties have been focused ahead of Lok Sabha polls as the indigenous people have always played an important role.

Indigenous Peoples' Front of Tripura (IPFT) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have continued their talks over seat sharing although they stick to their decisions of fielding their own candidates for the state's two Lok Sabha seats viz Tripura West and Tripura East.

Separately, the state's oldest tribal-based party, the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) have also held inconclusive talks with the central leaders of the Congress, including its President Rahul Gandhi.

A meeting was held between the IPFT leaders, Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma and Education and Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath on Thursday but the seat sharing hurdles remained unresolved.

Meanwhile, IPFT General Secretary and Forest and Tribal Welfare Minister Mever Kumar Jamati told that they would take a decision in the party's two-day executive committee meeting to be held on March 16-17.

Narendra Chandra Debbarma, IPFT President and Revenue Minister, however, said that they have been requesting the BJP leaders to allow them to contest from Tripura East since the seat is reserved for tribals.

He further said that if the BJP won't do so then they will put up candidates in both the Lok Sabha seats.

Meanwhile, a party delegation led by President Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawal met Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday in Delhi to discuss the seat sharing issue.

The other tribal based parties are also holding a series of meetings with the Congress, BJP and other parties to fine-tune their tactics including the National Conference of Tripura.

State BJP General Secretary Pratima Bhowmik said that they are not concerned about the mere winning of two Lok Sabha seats and that their target is to register a record victory margin. She also said that Ram Madhav who have addressed the party leaders across the state on Tuesday gave a clear roadmap to win the two seats.

For the two Lok Sabha seats, West Tripura goes to the polls on April 11 while Tripura East will go for polls on April 18.

Also Read: TRIPURA NEWS