GUWAHATI: The Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), an ally of the BJP-led coalition government in Tripura, will take the Delhi route to voice its core demands, including proper rehabilitation of displaced Bru people, with an eye on wooing tribal voters ahead of next year’s autonomous council elections.
About 500 members of the party will be joining several hundred others at the national capital in the first week of December before assembling at Jantar Mantar for staging a rally to press for its four-point charter of demands, including its principal demand of a separate state, Twipraland, for indigenous people living in the tribal areas of Tripura.
Speaking to The Shillong Times over phone from Agartala on Tuesday, IPFT general secretary, Mevar Kumar Jamatia said, “A strong contingent of party leaders, members and supporters from the state will be leaving for New Delhi on November 28 and the party will stage a demonstration-cum-rally during the first week of December to voice its four-point charter of demands at the national capital.”
“Apart from creation of a separate state, we want implementation of the National Register of Citizens in Tripura, scrapping of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill and a permanent solution for rehabilitation of the displaced Bru people,” Jamatia, who is also the state tribal welfare and forest minister, said.
The IPFT leader also said that the party was ready to accommodate in the state the displaced Bru people who do not want to be repatriated to Mizoram. “If they are willing to remain in Tripura, they can surely do so,” he said.
The party’s move to place its demands at the national platform is seen as a big push to woo tribal voters ahead of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections in Tripura in April-May next year.
The 30-member TTAADC is currently ruled by the Opposition CPI-M even as the ruling party, BJP, and junior ally, IPFT, are now gearing up on a war footing to fight the polls separately in a bid to wrest control of the council.
TTAADC has jurisdiction over two-thirds of Tripura’s 10,491 sq km area, home to over 12.16 lakh people.