Tripura BJP to contest village committee polls with allies

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tripura will contest the upcoming village committee elections under the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) in alliance with the Tipra Motha Party (TMP) and the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), state BJP president Rajib Bhattacharjee announced on Sunday.

"We believe in coalition politics... we will fight the elections to the village committees under the TTAADC collectively after consultation with our two allies, TMP and IPFT," Bhattacharjee told reporters.

The decision marks a significant shift in political dynamics, as the BJP and TMP had contested the 2023 assembly elections separately. However, a year later, TMP joined the BJP-led coalition government.

The TTAADC, which operates under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, has 587 village committees functioning like panchayats. Elections for these committees were due in February 2021 but were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent delimitation process. The Tripura High Court, responding to a petition filed by TMP, had instructed the State Election Commission (SEC) to conduct the elections by December 2024. The poll schedule is yet to be announced.

Bhattacharjee said the BJP, along with its tribal wing Janajati Morcha, has been actively promoting the achievements of the BJP-led government in tribal areas. "Today, we organised a state-level programme – 'Empowering Janajati, Empowering Tripura' – to highlight the good work done by the BJP-led government in the last seven years. Similar events will be held at district and block levels," he said.

He also pointed out that the government has allocated more development funds to tribal-dominated blocks compared to non-tribal areas, focusing on infrastructure projects like road construction, drinking water supply, housing, and livelihood initiatives.

"The 23-year-old Bru issue has been resolved permanently by rehabilitating the internally displaced families during the BJP rule. Besides, as many as 18 Eklavya Model Residential Schools have been sanctioned to provide proper education to tribal students," Bhattacharjee added. (With inputs from PTI)