This week, while speaking at a condolence meeting over the death of former CPI(M) Lok Sabha MP Basudeb Acharya from the Bankura constituency of West Bengal in Agartala, former chief minister and CPI(M) politburo member Manik Sarkar asked party leaders and workers to prepare for a fight in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections against the ruling BJP. He stated that the party doesn't need to hold discussions with other parties in the northeastern state for the upcoming polls.
It has to be mentioned that earlier this year, during the state assembly polls in the northeastern state, the CPI(M)-led Left Front, after many hurdles, had a seat-sharing agreement with its once-arch rival Congress to defeat the BJP. However, this seat-sharing pact didn't yield fruitful results. On the other hand, CPM also tried to ally with TIPRA Motha of royal scion Pradyot Debbarma, but the latter, due to some hidden reasons, avoided an alliance with the former. Later, during the bypolls of Dhanpur and Boxanagar, CPM again had discussions with Motha and Congress to secure their support. While Congress reluctantly supported CPM during the bypolls, Motha preferred to stay neutral and cleverly left the decision to its voters.
Manik Sarkar, known for siding with the anti-Congress lobby led by former general secretary Prakash Karat within the party, was not so eager for an alliance with the Congress and also was against any kind of agreement with Motha. With the political strategy pushed by state party secretary Jitendra Chaudhury, to have seat-sharing agreements with Congress and Motha not helping the Left in its old bastion, the central committee of the party reportedly has given the nod to go alone in the Lok Sabha polls — the political line advocated by Sarkar in the state. The party has already taken programs to strengthen itself. This Thursday, its Scheduled Caste wing along with six other frontal wings held a Raj Bhavan march where one of the demands raised was for a caste census in the state. It has been holding rallies and marches on basic issues in different parts of the state — and the rally held this Wednesday in tribal-dominated Kanchanpur sub-division of North Tripura on various issues like price rise, unemployment, withdrawal of recently hiked power tariff, and increase in wages for MGNREGA was also a part of the party's ongoing activities ahead of the 2024 polls. The rally was attended by Jitendra Chaudhury.
Manipur Needs A Political Solution The Centre Has Failed To Give
This week, in a press conference in the Guwahati Press Club, Commanding Officer of the Army’s Eastern Command Lt Gen Rana Pratap Kalita said that the violence in the northeastern state of Manipur will continue unless around 4000 weapons, which were looted from police stations in both plains and hills, are recovered. He said that till now around 1500 weapons have been recovered. He emphasized that there has to be a political solution as the violence has largely been contained but since both the Meitei and Kuki-Zomis are polarized, sporadic cases of violence take place.
He is absolutely right. Until and unless the polarization between the communities is reduced, the state will remain a victim of this ethnic violence. It is this polarization that has pushed the people from both sides to remain armed to protect themselves. However, the BJP, which is the ruling party of the state as well as the Centre, has failed to reduce this polarization. After the peace committee failed to address the cause for which it was set up, there has been no serious step from the Centre till now to reduce the gap through an effective peace committee. The current problem can't be resolved only through security measures. It is quite late but still better late than never for the Centre to take strong initiatives for a productive political solution.
BJP Ally IPFT Raises Tipraland Demand Ahead Of 2024 Polls
The Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura, an ally of the ruling BJP, is once again trying to gain its lost base ahead of the Lok Sabha polls by raising the old and tested demand of a separate Tipraland. This week a delegation of the party met with the state governor Indra Sena Reddy Nallu to press for the demand for Tipraland. The delegation included the state minister for cooperation, tribal welfare (TRP and PTG), and welfare for minorities Shukla Charan Noatia, the sole IPFT representative in the Manik Saha-led BJP government and the party’s working president Prem Kumar Reang.
The tribal party rose to prominence by raising the demand for a separate Tipraland, an infeasible demand, ahead of the state assembly elections of 2018. It entered into a pre-poll alliance with the BJP and won eight seats. This pre-poll alliance sealed the saffron victory in the 2018 elections. However, it went slow on the demand for Tipraland after it got two ministers in the state’s first BJP-led government. Later realizing the vacuum created by IPFT, royal scion Pradyot Debbarma formed the TIPRA Motha by raising the demand for Greater Tipraland, an extension of the IPFT’s Tipraland demand.
Now, with the decline of momentum in support for Motha in the hills, IPFT wants to utilize the present situation to gain its lost base from the former. As a part of this effort, the tribal party is going to hold a mass gathering next month to show its strength ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Will Bhaichung Bhutia’s Political Stars Shine With Merger?
This week, former football star Bhaichung Bhutia finally merged his Hamro Sikkim Party with the Sikkim Democratic Front led by former chief minister Pawan Chamling. This merger comes ahead of the assembly polls to be held next year along with the Lok Sabha polls.
Interestingly, Bhutia started his political career in West Bengal, but he never tasted any political success there. He first contested the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency as a Trinamool Congress candidate in the 2014 elections but lost to BJP’s SS Ahluwalia. Two years later, he contested the state assembly polls again as a TMC candidate from the Siliguri constituency but lost to CPM’s Ashok Bhattacharya.
Afterwards, he became dissatisfied with the TMC and resigned from the party to shift his base to his home state, Sikkim. He founded the Hamro Sikkim Party and contested the state assembly polls in 2019. His party got only 0.6% votes and he himself lost badly in the two constituencies he contested. Bhaichung has so far politically failed in his own state too. Left with no option, he decided to join the SDF, the party he once opposed, only to lift his political career.
The author is a political commentator.
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