Tripura: Give us 22 seats or we quit the alliance, tribal party tells BJP

Agartala: We are prepared to contest the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections alone if the demand to share maximum seats to our party is not accepted by BJP leadership, said Mevar Kumar Jamatia, Tripura forest minister and general secretary of Indigenous Peoples’ Front of Tripura (IPFT).

Speaking with EastMojo, Jamatia said that they have taken the initiative to discuss seat-sharing with BJP. However, if the demand of giving a freehand with maximum seats to IPFT is not conceded, they would contest the elections separately.

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“We are confident to win the Autonomous District Council (ADC) election even if seat-sharing does not happen with our coalition partner BJP. We won’t settle for anthing short of 22 seats,” Jamatia said.

The TTAADC presently has 30 seats out of which 2 are nominated by the governor of Tripura from the different tribal communities.

He also said that on Thursday a delegation of IPFT led by the party President and Tripura revenue minister NC Debbarma met with the chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb and placed the demand to conduct the elections in the ADC immediately.

Earlier, on May 13, Tripura Cabinet approved to dissolve the incumbent executive committee from May 17 as the elections could not be conducted due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus.

The Governor of Tripura—Ramesh Bais took charge for a tenure of six months of and appointed ex-chief secretary GK Rao as the administrator of the TTAADC.

Earlier, on Friday chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb told reporters that during the meeting with the leaders of the coalition partner discussion on seat-sharing was held.

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“We have held discussions on development of ADC and reviewed the work done so far and also discussed what more needs to be done. Seat sharing was also done”, Deb said.

Speaking further he said that in the past two and a half years of the BJP-IPFT government several initiatives were taken by the partners in the cabinet meetings.

“For many years, there was no scheme to provide direct benefit to individuals. But we have got Rs 57 crore for the development from the centre. The name of the TTAADC was approved for Tripura Territorial Council which was forwarded to centre for their approval”, Deb added.

The TTAADC is spread into 68% of the total geographical area of the state and is home to over one third of the total population of Tripura.