AGARTALA:
The Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) is set to challenge the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in its home turf.
Taking the game to CPI-M leader Manik Sarkar, the chairman of TIPRA, Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma, on April 28, announced that the party will field candidate from Dhanpur, the constituency in Tripura’s Sepahijala district that is considered to be a stronghold of the leader of opposition, in the upcoming assembly polls.
“TIPRA will fight from the Dhanpur constituency. It has been many years we haven’t fought from Dhanpur. Dhanpur is an assembly constituency in which the majority of the people are from the tribal community,” Pradyot said, addressing the gathering at an induction ceremony at Ujjayanta Palace where more than 50 leaders and workers from CPIM, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) from the constituency joined the TIPRA.
The leader of opposition has won from Dhanpur five times in a row from 1998 to 2018.
Terming the constituency as a “VIP Constituency” Pradyot alleged, “This is a VIP constituency as Manik Sarkar won from this seat, so did late Samar Choudhury. Present union minister of state Pratima Bhoumik was also a candidate here, but not a single developmental work has been done in the tribal-dominated areas because no tribal MLA have ever won from the constituency. But this time, we will field our candidate and focus on development.”
Pradyot further reiterated that TIPRA will fight from each and every assembly constituency where there is a presence of indigenous people.
“If we are fighting for Greater Tipraland hence, we should fight from each and every constituency that has the presence of indigenous. Dhanpur is a very important constituency in this regard, and we will fight from Dhanpur,” he said.