Regional musings

 With the next Lok Sabha election due in 2024 non-BJP political parties are trying to forge alliances to challenge the NDA. Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress(TMC), which came out on top in the March 2021 West Bengal election against the awesome might of the BJP, has been emboldened to try and spread its wings to other states. The TMC has already struck the right chord with The Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance(Tipra) of Tripura before the 2023 state elections. Mamata Banerjee is looking to defeat the BJP in Tripura and has assured Tipra founder Kirit Pradyut Manikya Deb Barma of support in Parliament for creation of Tipraland( carved out of Tripura). Deb Barma also formed an alliance with the Assam Jatiya Parishad(AJP) which was announced on September 7. Deb Barma is a former prominent Congress leader fo the north east and also Tripura Congress chief. He quit Congress in 2019 after being disillusioned with the party’s ‘high command culture’ which he said promoted a culture of corrupt leaders and also being asked to withdraw his PIL in the Supreme Court seeking implementation of NRC. In 2021, TIPRA scripted a stunning electoral debut by winning a majority in the 28-member Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council elections in April 2021 along with its ally Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT). TIPRA won 16 seats and INPT won 2 seats. The BJP won 9 seats and Independent 1 while Congress and Left drew blanks. INPT has subsequently merged with Tipra. The resignation of Deb Barma will certainly be felt by the Congress , which used to be the alternative to the Left in Tripura. The TTAADC covers 68 per cent of the total geographical area of Tripura, and is home to over one-third of the total state population. The district council has a total of 30 seats, of which 28 are for elected members, while two are nominated by the governor of Tripura. With the next Tripura assembly election due in 2023(along with Nagaland), Deb Barma’s alliance with AJA and which is also likely to include various regional parties in the north east, could be crucial. The coming together of Deb Barma and Gogoi may be of like minds but their respective parties exist in different planets. Mamata’s support to Tipra may be strategic but it can certainly work to the advantage of both parties. Mamata has extended the olive branch in to tap into Barma’s influence in Tripura. For any meaningful alliance against the BJP, the newly formed alliance of Tipra and AJA will have to play their card well. It may be noted that presently most regional parties in the north east are part of the BJP-led NDA. Earlier, the concept for a regional alliance received the best response when in 2013, the North-East Regional Political Front(NERPF) was formed by 10 political parties of NE. In 2014 the NERPF pledged support to NDA. After BJP won power at the Centre, it was included in the NERPF which was later renamed as North East Democratic Alliance(NEDA) in May 2016 before Assam assembly election. It is not easy to sustain a regional alliance as the past has proved. However, if the Tipra and AJA are proactive, they could just inspire other parties to ponder before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.