05/02/2022
JUST IN: How Tipra m***a started from an NGO to one of the largest regional political party in Northeast India?
TIPRA M***a completes one year today since its inception; The party's rapid growth in a short span of time is mention-worthy.
The TTAADC ruling party, Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA M***a) marks its first anniversary today as a political party, incepted last year on 5th February 2021 by the Tripura royal scion- Bubagra Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma.
In a very short span of time, the TIPRA M***a gained relevance in the political scenario of Tripura emerging as the largest regional political party of Tripura. Just less than one year after TIPRA M***a is announced as a political party, it contested the Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections on April 2021 and also won by 18 seats out of 28 total(2 nominated).
Initially, the TIPRA organisation was an initiative launched by Bubagra Pradyot in 2019 as a Non-Government Organization (NGO) to provide a platform for voicing the issues of indigenous people and work, uninfluenced by politics, in favour of the sentiments of Tiprasa people. This came shortly after Bubagra Prodyot's resignation from his post as Congress working president and party. It was later upgraded to a political party in 2021.
The TIPRA as a non-political organization has its own remarkable movements. The NGO was founded at a time when Tripura and the entire Northeast was in tremble by the widespread protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). The TIPRA was at the forefront in Tripura to voice against CAB and in favour of NRC(National Register Of Citizenship). The NGO TIPRA conducted an anti-CAA rally on January 11, 2020, at Madhav Kami, which witnessed huge participation by lakhs of Tiprasa across various age groups from all over the state.
The TIPRA as a non-political organization continued ANTI-CAA and PRO-NRC campaigns throughout the state. The programmes and movements organized by TIPRA were also attended by many big Tiprasa leaders irrespective of political parties. It then began to stretch its branches and roots with the support of intellectuals from different disciplines. The NGO started to gain momentum as the common Tiprasa perceived it as a credible platform to work for the cause of indigenous people. The mere presence of Bubagra Pradyot was itself a big factor in this.
On 5th February 2021, the TIPRA announced itself as a political party, a few months ahead of the TTAADC elections. By then, it had already pulled huge supporters. The party introduced the creation of the "Greater Tipraland" concept as their main demand. The Greater Tipraland demand is to upgrade the existing 6th schedule area (TTAADC) into complete statehood under articles 2 & 3 of the Indian Constitution. It differs from IPFT's decade-old "Tipraland" demand in including other areas too outside ADC in Greater Tipraland which are inhabited by Tiprasa people.
The Tipraland State Party(TSP) and IPFT(Tipraha), with similar statehood demand, merged their party with TIPRA M***a on February 19, 2021. Later, the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) also merged into TIPRA M***a on June 11, 2021, forming a single party.TIPRA M***a scripted history by becoming the only regional party to come to council without an alliance with a national party.
Bubagra Pradyot's advocacy of 'Thansa' (unity) and "puila jati ulo party" slogans underlines the main ideology of the party. The M***a is now in a good position with the wide acceptance of Greater Tipraland demand from the general Tiprasa public. It is now gearing up for the 2023 assembly elections with the "One Last Fight" slogan. In the 2021 council election, they came to power by breaking 15 years streak of the Left Front, who won all 28 seats in the last 2015 elections. Also by defeating the BJP-IPFT alliance, the ruling coalition government.TIPRA M***a is expected to be a key player in the 2023 general assembly elections
Article by: Rudi Debbarma, Homchang Agartala & Investigative Field Correspondent