In a surprise move the Congress indicated that it would forge a tactical alliance with TIPRA Motha in the ensuing by polls. Though the Congress did not officially declare any alliance or electoral partnership with TIPRA Motha, the party left two seats open for the regional party- Surma and Jubarajnagar.
In 6 Agartala and 8 Bordowali the Congress as expected would field Sudip Roy Barman and Asish Kumar Saha , the two seats Surma and Jubarajnagar remained vacant.
In the meantime TIPRA Motha announced one candidate for Surma SC seat Baburam Satnami.
Congress leaders said, since the moot idea at this point was to oust the BJP from power. And for that any sort of tie up or understanding with any regional party or other party could be very well considered . However, insiders said the Congress actually left the two seats open for the TIPRA Motha but official statement would not be issued , at least for now. The support system of the Congress would then work for the TIPRA motha in full swing.
Pradyot Kishore Debbarman had earlier said that the regional party would contest from two constituencies.
The Congress had always depended on a tribal party in Tripura as far as ADC areas or tribal dominated areas were concerned when it came to elections. It was in 1972 that Congress got highest tribal votes in the tribal areas—42 percent. After that the Congress got traditionally dependent on the TUJS and later other regional parties to sail through in the 20 ST reserved constituencies.
But what was surprising is that Surma and Jubarajnagar both seats were general seats and there was apparently no reason to leave these two seats to the TIPRA Motha.
TIPRA Motha which was so aggressively demanding for the Greater Tipraland and many a found it overtly an anti-Bengali outfit in its overtures- as often Pradyot Kishore Debbarman himself was seen moving with former ATTF president Ranjit Debbarma who had been accused of committing Bengali genocides – became some sort of Congress’ partner in the by polls. This by polls were also pegged as the run up for the next Assembly polls of 2023 and as such the Congress’ ‘tactical’ move with TIPRA Motha appeared to be long term game plan.
Whether such alliance or support system would any favourable results for the Congress or would further erode its orginal Bengali vote base could be told only after the election results would be out.
