The Left Front campaign for the forthcoming Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District (TTAAD) Village Committee elections is gathering momentum, with meetings, marches, courtyard meetings and door-to-door campaigns drawing an enthusiastic response from people. In several villages, voters are openly speaking about their hardships and expressing growing dissatisfaction with the BJP-led state government and the Tipra Motha-run Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) administration.

Addressing election meetings at Poangbari and Takkatulshi in Sabroom, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Jitendra Chaudhury called upon voters to elect Left Front candidates and give a befitting reply to the BJP-Tipra Motha-IPFT combine. He said the slogans of IPFT and Tipra Motha — ‘Tipraland’ and ‘Greater Tipraland’ — had ultimately proved to be instruments of deception.

“Tipra Motha had promised that Greater Tipraland would become a reality immediately after coming to power in the ADC. It had also promised 23,000 jobs, 6,000 police jobs and justice for the 10,323 teachers. How many of these promises have been fulfilled?” he asked.

Chaudhury said the slogan had now changed to ‘land rights’. The BJP, Tipra Motha and IPFT were now in an alliance, yet the basic demands of the tribal people remained unfulfilled. He recalled that the Left Front government had distributed land pattas and provided legal rights over land, while the process was stopped after the BJP came to power in 2018.

He also pointed to the sharp change in the political relationship between the BJP and Tipra Motha. Referring to the bitter contest between the two parties during the previous ADC election, he said that their subsequent alliance exposed the opportunistic character of their politics. “Tipra Motha keeps changing its slogans to preserve its political existence and confuse the people,” he said.

Chaudhury highlighted the development undertaken in the Poangbari–Takkatuls­hi area during the Left Front government. Roads, schools, drinking water and electricity were extended to the region, and the Poangbari block was created by reorganising the existing administrative structure. In contrast, he alleged, the BJP and Tipra Motha had failed even to properly maintain roads built during the Left Front period.

At Poangbari market, a large procession preceded the public meeting. Earlier, Chaudhury addressed meetings at Domuikhya and Gulsing Bari. Meetings were also held in support of Left Front candidates Ratna Tripura, Murchamohan Tripura and Nishimohan Tripura.

Defeat ruling coalition, elect Left Front: Manik Sarkar 

At Ambassa, veteran CPI(M) leader Manik Sarkar called upon voters to elect Left Front candidates in every seat and strengthen the Village Committees as institutions of grassroots democracy. Addressing an election meeting at Dolubari despite heavy rain, he said the elections could deliver a strong political message against the BJP-led state government and the Tipra Motha-run ADC administration.

He urged voters not to be intimidated while exercising their franchise. “If anyone tries to prevent you from going to vote, stand up and resist. If they still do not move aside, go together and clear the way to the polling station,” he said.

Sarkar recalled the history of the ADC and Village Committee institutions and the role of the Left Front in building them. The Village Committee law, he said, was enacted by the Left Front government with the objective of decentralising power and enabling people in these tribal villages to participate directly in decisions concerning local development.

He said the Left Front government had brought major changes to life in the tribal areas by expanding employment, roads, education, healthcare, drinking water and other basic services. After the BJP-led government came to power in 2018, this process was reversed.

Sarkar said corruption and one-party authoritarianism had become synonymous with the BJP rule, while the Tipra Motha administration in the ADC had failed to address the problems of the people. Schools lacked teachers, hospitals lacked doctors and nurses, medicines were unavailable, agriculture was in crisis and employment opportunities had declined.

He alleged that both the BJP and Tipra Motha were encouraging divisions among people. While the BJP sought to create communal divisions, Tipra Motha was attempting to widen the distance between tribal and non-tribal communities. Their common objective, he said, was to prevent working people from standing together in defence of their rights.

Referring to the recent BJP–Tipra Motha understanding, Sarkar asked what had changed within just a few months for the two parties to join hands after campaigning against each other. He said more than 2,000 seats were being contested by candidates of the Left parties with courage against the BJP–Tipra Motha combine.

“The growing willingness of people to resist is itself a new development,” he said, calling upon voters to elect Left candidates to fight corruption, unemployment and the loot of public resources.

CPI(M) state committee member Pankaj Chakraborty said not a single election under the BJP government had been conducted in a genuinely free atmosphere. State committee member Amalendu Debbarma said the BJP and Tipra Motha were no different when it came to denying tribal rights and breaking promises.

Call for People-Centred Village Committees

At Kamalpur, CPI(M) state secretariat member Rajendra Reang called upon voters to prevent the Village Committees from becoming instruments of corruption and vested interests. Addressing an election meeting at Sanaia Reang Para in Swetrai village, he said the absence of elected Village Committees for years had turned large parts of the ADC area into a field for corruption.

He alleged that neither the BJP-led government nor the Tipra Motha-run ADC administration had undertaken any significant new development initiative. Roads, drinking water, electricity and healthcare services had deteriorated.

Reang recalled the historic role of the Left Front in the formation of the ADC and in securing important rights for tribal people. He alleged that leaders of the BJP and Tipra Motha had accumulated wealth while ordinary people continued to suffer.

Dhalai district committee secretary Anjan Das said successive organisations had emerged claiming to represent tribal interests but had repeatedly betrayed the people. The BJP and Tipra Motha, he alleged, were now both deeply involved in corruption and had no interest in genuine development.

Door-to-Door Campaign Gets Strong Response

In Udaipur subdivision, the Left Front campaign has taken an intensive door-to-door form across the ADC villages under Matabari block. CPI(M) leaders and candidates are visiting households, listening to people’s experiences and discussing the problems they face in everyday life.

Matabari block has 12 ADC villages, with Left parties contesting in nine. Campaigns are continuing in Tainan, Adipur, Kalaban, Gorji, Gorjichhara, Gamaria, South Maharani, East South Maharani and Brahmachhara among others.

The campaign is receiving a particularly warm response from people who have had little opportunity to exercise their franchise at the Village Committee level for nearly a decade. Villagers are speaking of the absence of employment, development and basic services, as well as the growing atmosphere of division and corruption.

In East South Maharani, residents in several areas raised the acute shortage of drinking water. Poor tribal families, they said, were being forced to purchase drinking water. In other villages, people spoke about deteriorating roads and the lack of development initiatives.

The Left campaign is being conducted by teams of party leaders and candidates, including Shyama Prasad Goswami, Ramtaran Noatia, Dilip Das, Amar Das, Bimal Pal, Bikram Malsom, Parimal Majumdar, Banchharam Chakma, Waj Uddin Ahmed, Shubha Chakraborty, Kirti Sadhan Jamatia and others.

At Brahmachhara, campaign programmes are being held in Gathalong, Brahmachhara and Kalatila. Flags and posters have been put up across the villages, though several flags were allegedly destroyed during the night. Despite such incidents, the campaign continues and people are expressing their opposition to the BJP–Tipra Motha combine.

Across the ADC areas, the central theme emerging from the campaign is the demand for an alternative based on employment, development, democratic rights and social unity. The response to the Left Front’s campaign indicates that sections of the electorate are seeking to use the Village Committee elections to register their dissatisfaction with the present rulers and strengthen the forces of resistance at the grassroots.