President Tipra Motha Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma. File | Photo credit: PTI
Tipra Motha Party (TMP) supremo Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma said on Sunday (December 21, 2025) that his party will fight the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections alone if the Tipras Accord is not implemented.
The TMP, an ally of the BJP, signed an agreement with the Center and the state government in March 2024 for the overall development of indigenous people.
In the 2021 TTADC elections, BJP had to concede defeat at the hands of TMP, then a newly formed regional party.
“What to say when Chief Minister Manik Saha himself announced that BJP will win all 28 tribal council seats. If the Tiprasa agreement is not implemented, we will fight the election alone because I cannot fool my people,” Debbarma told reporters.
Asserting that the Center was willing to implement the agreement, the TMP chief said some senior leaders in the state seemed to be against its implementation.
Mr. Debbarma also made it clear that the party will not budge on the issue of a script for Kokborok, the mother tongue of most tribal communities in Tripura.
Referring to the effects of attempts to impose Urdu in the then East Pakistan, he said that the choice of script for Kokborok was an internal matter and no one could dictate it to the people of Tipras.
“The Center and the state government must respect the sentiments of the indigenous people regarding the selection of the Kokborok scenario. We will not change our stand. It is our internal matter,” he said.
On the troubled situation in Bangladesh, Mr. Debbarma said that the Center and the state government must adopt a clear policy for the Northeast as fundamentalists are active across the border.
“Minorities, especially tribals, are oppressed in Bangladesh. Radical forces threaten to give shelter to anti-Indian forces in Bangladesh. The nationalist party cannot remain a silent spectator in a volatile situation,” he said.
Published – 21 Dec 2025 19:10 IST
