The sole heir to the 800-year-old Manikya royalty of Tripura and the chairman of the newly launched political party Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) Motha, Maharaja Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma, says that talks are on to merge all regional and tribal parties to have a stronger voice for Greater Tipraland— a demand to carve out a separate state from Tripura tribal council areas, also including ‘Tiprasa’ (indigenous people) spread across different states of India like Assam, Mizoram, etc, as well as parts of neighbouring Bangladesh.
Speaking to News18.com, he said, “We are having talks with the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) and other tribal parties for a merger. We don’t want any kind of alliance but we want a merger so that our strength and voice will be stronger to press our demand for a separate state of Tipraland. I believe all the tribal parties will come under one umbrella because our demand is the same. It is true that IPFT is with the BJP but their demands are the same as ours. So I believe they will agree on a merger. I had a word with them and they are considering it seriously. The general secretary and most of the MLAs (of IPFT) have agreed to form a single party (hinting at merger) instead of contesting separately.”
With the death of its last king, Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur Debbarma, the Twipra kingdom merged with independent India, said Pradyot Bikram. “The transition of Tripura from a nominal democracy to a full-fledged democracy resulted in a mass influx of refugees over a period of 1949-1972 and left the son of the soil (19 tribes) in minority. Therefore, we want a separate state to save our identity, culture and language,” he said.
While expressing concern over the delimitation which is likely to take place in 2026 on the basis of the 2021 Census, he said pointed out that the new Parliament House will have a Lok Sabha chamber that can accommodate nearly 772 lawmakers. “There will be more parliamentary and assembly seats. This is based on the Centre’s move to increase the numbers of parliamentary constituencies (through delimitation). It is a big worry for us because it will further reduce the tribal percentage from 30% to 22%. Therefore, I am trying for a merger of all the tribal parties. For the greater cause of the tribal people, I am ready to step aside and let someone else take the leadership of the merged platform,” he said.
Asked to elaborate, he said, “It is not all about giving up. It is a matter of the welfare of the tribal people. Even if I step aside I will remain a strong figure. It does not mean that I will lose popularity. It does not mean that people will not like me. Do you think Rahul Gandhi will lose his popularity if he steps aside? Do you think Mamata Banerjee will lose popularity if she steps aside? They are strong figures and they will remain strong. Therefore, we want all of us to merge into a single party and then let’s have a talk with the Centre on separate statehood. If you ask me personally, I have no issue even with union territory status.”
Speaking on the TMC’s aggressive campaign for the 2023 Tripura polls, he said he had kept his options open. “I have a lot of respect for Mamatadi. Abhishek Banerjee (TMC MP and Mamata’s nephew) is my friend. I have kept my doors open for all including BJP, Congress and TMC. But the condition is they should respect our sentiments and fulfil our demand for a separate state of Tipraland. If the TMC comes to me then we will certainly have talks with them but that will happen at the right time.”
Recently, several supporters of the IPFT switched to the TIPRA Motha, which swept the Tripura tribal council polls in April.
TIPRA Motha and its ally Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT) won 18 seats in tribal areas’ district council polls (which covers nearly 20 assembly seats out of the total 60 in Tripura). “The poll result show that it will be foolish to ignore us in the upcoming assembly polls in the state. We won 18 seats but the figure could have been more as we lost three seats by small margins. We lost one seat by 62 votes, while two seats by 200 and 250 votes,” Pradyot said, reiterating that he is not after any post and is willing to step aside to achieve the goal of Tipraland.
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