Tripura Assembly Election:

BJP has won the Tripura Assembly Election quite handsomely. In the overwhelming victory for the saffron outfit, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) played a stellar role, especially in the tribal areas. Now the election mandate is given, BJP nows finds daunting task ahead in giving the tribal outfit requisite political space.

Although the alliance was more or less a strategic one, BJP got huge dividends. Now, various quarters of Tripura political circles are keenly waiting to see how does the saffron party react to the call for Tipraland. The IPFT has been time and again calling for such in all these years. Even during the campaign itself, they have categorically promises the people in tribal areas of a new state. This has created fresh controversy and the onus certainly lies on BJP government.

BJP, policy wise has always supported the call for separate state. Even during previous NDA regimes, new states like Jharkhand, Uttarakhand came up. But there are controversies as well like the much debated Gorkhaland or Khalistan. In this scenario, the context is indeed a tricky one as the party is well aware of the expectations of the Bengali community. The IPFT members previously blocked NH 8 and railway tracks.

As IPFT is also looking for getting ‘responsibility’ in the government, it would be interesting to see how do the BJP manage to handle the issue of Tipraland.