By Bindusmita Bhowmik, Siren News (Agartala) : Tripura Royal Scion Pradyot Kishore Deb Barma was appointed the state president of Pradesh Congress Committee on February 25, 2019. Within a few months Pradyot resigned for the post, accusing the congress high command pressuring him to accommodate ‘corrupt people’. Almost three months after resigning from the post of Pradesh Congress presidenship, he formed an organization to work for the rights of the indigenous people.
On 5th October 2021 he announced their organization name “Tipra Motha” and declared that the organization has become a political party and going to contest in the TTAADC election in 2021. The primary demand of the TIPRA Motha is the formation of “Greater Tipraland”. The Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT), Tipraland State Party (TSP) and IPFT (Tipraha) merged with TIPRA Motha before TTAADC election on 2021.
On 10th April, a newly formed political party swept the elections in Tripura’s Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council. The Tipraha Indigenous People’s Regional Alliance, or TIPRA, won 18 of the 28 contested seats, defeating the state’s ruling alliance of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT). TIPRA was founded as a political party on 5th February by Pradyot Kishore Deb Barma. After the landslide victory he said “we had a team of young faces. Around ninety percent of them were not from a political background, their uncles, fathers, aunts had no political positions. We had a very positive campaign, we did not speak against BJP, we did not speak out against the Communist or the Congress. We offerd the people, this is what we will do”.
The main objective is the creation of a new state “Greater Tipraland” under the Article 2 and 3 of the constitution of India. The TIPRA Motha emphasizes Tripuri nationalism which is evident with the slogan “Puila Jati, Ulobo Jati” and “ Puila Jati, Ulo Party”. It aims to first empower and emancipate the Tiprasa people before anything else. The party sees its activities as peoples’ movement rather than a political one.
If we talk about recent electoral history of TIPRA Motha, the party has scripted a stunning electoral debut by winning a majority in the 28th number TTAADC elections.
TIPRA Motha supremo Pradyot Kishore Deb Barma reaffirmed his earlier claim that the demand of Greater Tipraland would not be compromised at any cost and issued a stern call for victory in 2023. Recently he organised a massive gathering of thousands of Indigenous people who travelled from all over the state to the Swami Vivekananda Stadium complemented the term “Thansa”.
