Agartala (Tripura): In a significant political development, BJP’s state secretary and veteran woman politician Manihar Debbarma switched over to Pradyot Kishore Debbarman led TIPRA Motha, a party that came into being months before the TTAADC election and swept the polls with an absolute majority. Debbarma’s sudden defection to TIPRA Motha assumed significance in the present political landscape due to the emergence of her new party as the biggest regional political front.
After joining the party, Debbarma did not utter a single word against the BJP but maintained that she was given due importance and it was her choice to strengthen the fight for the rights of the indigenous people spearheaded by royal scion—Pradyot Manikya. “In the BJP camp, I have been in the state executive. My views are always given weight and never ever have I been pressurized to suppress my independent thinking. But, now I feel it is the time to work for TIPRA Motha as the party is raising the issues that must be echoed in the national capital. My aim is just to supplement the movement”, Debbarma said.
Read: Tripura to compensate for delayed MGNREGA wages
She said she had tendered her resignation to BJP state president Manik Saha on June 01 last and officially joined TIPRA on the day when Tripura’s first regional political party TUJS (Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti) was formed. According to her, it is a historic moment and she wants to help her new party to grow big. To a question regarding the just-concluded TTAADC elections, she felt that there were certain lacunas in the seat-sharing process between the BJP and IPFT that ultimately caught her previous party on the wrong foot.
According to sources, Debbarma has been a popular anti-Left face in the Ramchandraghat area and played a pivotal role in setting the BJP at the helm of power. Although she refused to speak anything about her previous stint, sources said, the BJP miserably failed to bank on the leaders who could actually work for the party and relied on people who had little acceptance. Another senior leader from the IPFT Biresh Debbarma, a contesting candidate from Kachucherre constituency in the TTAADC polls and a central committee member joined TIPRA Motha quitting the IPFT.
Political analysts said, the way TIPRA is getting stronger after an electoral success in the TTAADC elections is a shock defeat for the BJP and the IPFT, and that the party will play the role of a deciding factor in the forthcoming assembly elections. Debbarma also worked for the Congress party before moving to the BJP in 2016.
Read: Tripura govt approves proposal to provide free sanitary napkins to schoolgirls
