Riding the tiger: Pradyot Kishore faces new emerging power centre in TIPRA Motha
The TIPRA Motha Party under the leadership of Pradyot Kishore Debbarma, has, of late, been showing visible cracks with recent statements and activities of senior leaders within the party that have laid bare a widening rift, raising questions over his grip on the organisation.
What began as isolated statements from some leaders has now snowballed into a power struggle that threatens the very authority of its founder.
Observers say Pradyot Kishore is today in the unenviable position of “riding the tiger.” Having once spearheaded a hard-line movement rooted in ethnic identity, he now finds himself unable either to fully endorse or outright disown the extreme rhetoric being pushed from within. The result is a leadership caught between conflicting pressures, with fissures widening across the party.
The first major jolt came when Ranjit Debbarma, a former militant who once commanded the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), called a press conference unilaterally.
Without consulting the party high command, he declared that TIPRA Motha would withdraw support from the BJP-led government if the clauses of the Greater Tipraland accord were not implemented.
He went even a step further and claimed that East Tripura Lok Sabha MP Kriti Singh—Pradyot Kishore’s sister—would resign from Parliament as part of the protest.
The move left the party scrambling. Pradyot Kishore was forced to publicly clarify that Ranjit had spoken on his own without authorisation, in a bid to contain the damage. But the episode exposed the growing audacity of leaders within TIPRA Motha who no longer hesitate to contradict the supremo in public.
Not long after, TIPRA leader David Murasingh stirred a storm by stating that “all Bengalis in Tripura are Bangladeshis.” The remark, widely condemned as inflammatory, placed Pradyot in a particularly awkward position.
For reasons political and personal, he has of late sought to soften his anti-Bengali stance. Murasingh’s statement effectively dragged him back into the corner of identity politics from which he was trying to edge away.
To complicate matters further, Pradyot Kishore was recently compelled to withdraw a social media post criticising BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya’s controversial comment on Bengalis. Party insiders suggest the withdrawal was not voluntary but the result of pressure from hardline factions within TIPRA Motha, underscoring his shrinking room for maneuvers.
The most disruptive blow, however, came from Ranjit Debbarma again. In an unexpected letter, he demanded that tribal women who marry non-tribals should lose their Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. The proposal stunned party leaders and supporters alike, not only because it runs contrary to constitutional provisions but also because of its immediate political implications.
If implemented, the demand would strip Kriti Singh of her ST identity—disqualifying her from representing the reserved East Tripura Lok Sabha seat. The irony did not go unnoticed. Nor did the fact that a senior TIPRA leader himself would face embarrassment, since members of his own family are married to non-tribals.
Analysts believe the move was not made in ignorance but with calculation. By raising a demand that directly undermines Pradyot Kishore’s family, Ranjit is trying to position himself as the more ‘uncompromising defender of tribal interests’.
The strategy, they argue, is aimed at creating an alternate power centre within TIPRA Motha.
This is not the first time internal contradictions have surfaced within the party. Ever since its performance in the 2021 Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections, TIPRA Motha has grappled with balancing its radical slogans of “Greater Tipraland” with the realities of governance and constitutional limits.
Pradyot Kishore’s attempts to strike a middle path—pushing for dialogue with the Centre while avoiding overt hostility towards non-tribals—have increasingly come under fire from within. That left Pradyot Kishore to search for one after another issue and slogans to keep the boat floating and his ‘warriors’ spirited.
The challenge that Pradyot Kishore faces is magnified by Ranjit Debbarma’s background. Having once commanded an armed outfit and maintained international contacts during his years underground, Ranjit carries both influence and credibility among militant-leaning sections of the tribal community.
His unilateral pronouncements are seen by many as deliberate attempts to erode Pradyot’s authority and project himself as the uncompromising face of the tribal cause.
But as fate would have it, it was Pradyot Kishore who himself chose and picked up Ranjit Debbarma for his ‘anti –Bengali’ image and made him a leader and also an MLA.
For now, Pradyot and his loyalists have refrained from openly confronting Ranjit. But insiders admit the leadership is acutely aware of the emerging threat. “Everyone knows what is happening, but no one wants to say it aloud,” remarked a senior TIPRA functionary, requesting anonymity.
Pradyot Kishore faces a tough balancing act. He is in Catch 22. Disowning Ranjit risks alienating the party’s militant wing and weakening TIPRA’s tribal support base. But tolerating his defiance could further embolden dissent and hasten the formation of rival power blocs.
Either way, the trajectory of TIPRA Motha seems set for turbulence. What was once apparently a united front under Pradyot Kishore is now increasingly turning into a battlefield of competing ambitions.
The brewing fissure would definitely be widened and open to all with elections drawing near. How the ‘supremo’ reins in his rebellious colleagues—or fails to—may well determine not just his political survival but also the future of tribal politics in Tripura.
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This write up was also published in the Tripura Times.
