BJP would have lost 2023 Tripura polls if not for Tipra Motha: CPI(M)'s Manik Sarkar

BJP would have lost the 2023 assembly elections in Tripura if the tribal people were not “fooled” by the Tipra Motha, former chief minister Manik Sarkar claimed on Monday.

Addressing an election rally in support of Congress’s Tripura West candidate Asish Kumar Saha in Hapania, he said the BJP’s vote share came down from 51 per cent in 2018 to 39 per cent in 2023 which showed the party “has lost the people’s faith”.

“The CPI(M) managed to get back its lost votes in the 2023 assembly elections, but it was Tipra Motha that played a spoilsport, creating a division in the anti-BJP tribal votes. Had the Tipra Motha not fooled the tribal people, the result would have been different,” he said.

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Urging the people to defeat the BJP and form a “secular government” in Delhi, the veteran CPI(M) leader asked party workers to vote for Saha.

“You are not habituated to cast vote on the Congress symbol, but this time you have to do it for saving democracy and the Constitution,” he said.

The Tipra Motha, which emerged as the principal opposition party in the state by securing 13 seats in last year’s assembly elections, joined the BJP-led government last month.