Agartala, July 17 (IANS) Ahead of next year’s elections to the politically significant Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), the ruling BJP on Thursday held a crucial meeting — ‘Janajati Chintan Shivir’ — with all elected and organisational tribal leaders.

Of Tripura’s four million population, one-third are tribals, and they played a crucial role in the electoral political affairs of the northeastern state.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, state Party President Rajib Bhattacharjee, Tribal Welfare Minister Bikash Debbarma, all tribal MLAs, TTAADC members and tribal leaders across Tripura attended the daylong ‘Janajati Chintan Shivir’.

“The meeting was held to further strengthen the BJP’s organisational base among the tribals,” Bhattacharjee, also a Rajya Sabha member, told the media.

Chief Minister Saha in a post on the X, said: “Under the visionary leadership of Hon’ble PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji, good governance has reached both the plains and hills. The determined efforts of the BJP-led government to bring about socio-economic and political upliftment of the Janajati communities across the country, including the long-neglected NE region, are now bearing fruit.”

“Today, addressed a gathering of elected party members of TTAADC (MDCs), MLAs, and party office-bearers at the ‘Janajati Chintan Shivir’ organised at Gitanjali Guest House, Agartala and highlighted the development initiatives. Also, discussed various organisational matters in detail,” the Chief Minister’s post read.

In Tripura, out of 60 Assembly seats, 20 seats are reserved for the tribals, and the BJP and the Congress have always depended on the tribal based parties to get votes of the tribals.

The CPI (M)-led Left Front, which governed Tripura for 35 years in two phases (1978 to 1988 and 1993 to 2018), has also ruled the TTAADC for many years as the Left parties have a substantial base among the tribals.

In the last Assembly polls in 2023, of the 20 tribal reserved seats, the BJP got six seats and its ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), managed one seat.

The then opposition party Tipra Motha Party (TMP), which since March last year became an ally of the BJP, had secured 13 seats in the 2023 Assembly polls.

In a major and far-reaching political development, TMP, during the TTAADC 2021 polls, registered a landslide victory to capture power in the politically important tribal autonomous body, ousting the CPI (M)-led Left parties.

Of the total 28 seats in TTAADC, the TMP won 18 seats, the BJP secured nine seats, while one seat went to an Independent candidate.

BJP’s junior ally IPFT, despite being a tribal-based party, drew a blank in the 2021 TTAADC polls.

The TMP, headed by former royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma, became a major political force since April 2021 after it wrested power in the politically important TTAADC, which has jurisdiction over two-thirds of Tripura’s 10,491 sq km area, and is home to over 12,16,000 people, of which around 84 per cent are tribals.

–IANS

sc/svn