TRIPURA ELECTIONS: BJP DEMOLISHES LEFT FRONT

The Left Front’s 25 year old rule in Tripura came to an end on Saturday with BJP and its alliance partner Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) sweeping the assembly polls by winning 43 seats and leaving CPI(M) at distant second with 16 seats only. It was a huge turnaround for BJP, which had no MLAs in the 60 member House and had got only around 1.7 per cent votes in the assembly elections in 2013.

The Congress, which over the years had played the second fiddle in the state and has been in power twice, has failed to open its account and its candidates forfeiting their security deposits on majority of the seats. Though, BJP had not declared any chief ministerial candidate, it is believed that Tripura BJP president Biplab Deb would succeed chief minister Manik Sarkar. Deb, a gym instructor-turned-politician, thanked the people of Tripura for their overwhelming support and credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah with the party's showing. Deb said the people of Tripura favourably responded to the BJP's call to root out the CPI(M) government, which has been ruling the  state for more than two decades. "People responded favourably to our call call 'Chalo Paltai' (Let's Change)," he said. Deb said that the next government's priority would be all-round development of Tripura and people voted for the BJP as there had been total backwardness in the state under the Manik Sarkar government. "The word development does not exist in the dictionary of the CPI(M). Our government will provide good governance and time-bound implementation of all developmental works," Deb said.

It is significant that BJP contested Tripura elections on local issues and ignored its “Hindutava” plank in the campaign. This was more visible when party brought Maharaja Colonel Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Debbarman Bahadur of the Manikya dynasty into focus. The last reigning monarch of the princely state before it merged with the Indian Republic in 1949, Bir Bikram is credited with planning the kingdom’s capital of Agartala, initiating land reforms, reserving vast tracts of land for Tripura’s tribal population, building Agartala’s first airport and setting up one of the country’s first municipalities and university. The BJP strategists laid focus on non-development of the frontier state where unemployment and non-compliance of pay commission’s recommendation for state government employees became a major issue. In fact of the three states, Tripura was also the most keenly watched for being the last Left bastion in the country. The 69 year old outgoing chief minister Manik Sarkar, has governed Tripura since 1998. A politburo member of CPI(M), he had been at the helm for the fourth consecutive time. Besides tapping into the youth, the BJP made aggressive best efforts to break the CPI(M)’s stranglehold in 20 seats reserved for tribals, which possibly turned the ride in its favour. The BJP led alliance has succeeded in winning all the 20 tribal reserved seats. The IPFT general secretary Mewat Jamatia has won from the Asharambari seat with a massive margin of 7,000 votes.

It is significant that BJP had contested 50 seats in the last assembly polls in 2013 and its candidates forfeited their deposits on 49 seats. However, with just 1.87 per cent of votes, it failed to win any seat in the state. The CPI(M) had won 49 of the 55 seats it contested while the Congress managed to win 10 out of 48 seats it contested. Though, CPM was voted out of power, it succeeded in retaining 43 per cent vote share whereas BJP made significant jump in vote bank by securing 42.8 per cent votes from its dismal performance of 2013 in which it has got 1.5 per cent of votes. The BJP got the lead with vote share of its alliance partner IPFT, which polled 7.7 per cent votes