BJP's gain in Tripura comes from understanding local culture

For a party that started off without any base in Tripura and only made an entry as late as 2013, the BJP has come a long way.

In the 2013 Assembly polls, which BJP contested, it managed with a poor vote share of 1.54 per cent. On the other hand, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) won 49 out of 60 seats, leaving the Congress, its major rival, with only 10 seats.

Indeed Tripura is the last Left bastion after Kerala. So from a non-entity in 2013, for the BJP to have sounded the poll bugle with confidence for the past one year is some achievement. If the CPI (M) and its sister organisations are known to be cadre-based then the BJP is not far behind. Its ability to mobilise booth level volunteers and mandals is legendary.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The BJP posted RSS pracharak Sunil Deodhar, a man with a mission, who has worked silently in Meghalaya for over two decades before he was made the BJP election-in-charge in Tripura. Deodhar is a committed worker and a great community mobiliser. During his tenure in Meghalaya, he learned the local language and could speak Khasi and Pnar better than the locals here. One of the ways in which the RSS spreads its ideology is by understanding the culture and sensitivities of the people it works with.

Deodhar was a founder member of an organisation called, ‘My Home India’ with branches across all states. Within this Organisation he set up a sister organisation called ‘ONE’ an acronym for Our North East. ONE identifies people from the North East who have done exemplary work in their respective fields whether that be social work, journalism, music etc, and awards them. My Home India and ONE also assist students from the North Eastern states who go out to study and encounter problems in their respective colleges and universities. So this benign aspect of the RSS is worth mentioning when people take a dig at the organisation and call it a Hindutva task force.

So in the last one year, Sunil Deodhar has infiltrated the tribal belt and worked with their leaders particularly those with political ambitions. The BJP has tied up with the Indigenous Peoples’ Front of Tripura (IPFT), a tribal political outfit. Manik Sarkar, Tripura’s Chief Minister, alleges IPTF to be a militant outfit that once demanded a sovereign Tripura and has now toned down its demand to a separate state. The BJP-IPFT alliance is a dichotomous one because the BJP says it is against granting statehood to the tribal areas of Tripura but the IPFT’s major demand is a separate state. Yet the two parties shared the daison Thursdaywhen Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned in Tripura.

The major points in the BJP’s vision document are (a) one employment per household (b) free education for women up to graduation level (what the Left Front government is already providing) (c) Free smartphones for the youth to further the Digital India agenda (d) 7th Pay Commission to be implemented (d) 33 Social security schemes amongst which pension for widows will be raised to Rs 2000 from Rs 700 (e) daily labourers to get minimum wage of Rs 340 which is the national minimum wage (f) housing to every BPL family under the PMAY (g) Family health Insurance of up to Rs 5 lakh for BPL families.

One important announcement that BJP made is, changing the name of Agartala airport to Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore airport in honour of the royal family of Tripura. Incidentally, the Congress Party also has promised the same ‘if’ it comes to power.

And of course, the BJP cannot let go the one important agenda which is to investigate into the Rose Valley chit fund scam in which Chief Minister Manik Sarkar’s name also features, amongst those of other ministers.

In Tripura, the Congress Party is reduced to a non-entity. The Party bigwigs only started fanning out to campaign about a fortnight ago. Rahul Gandhi will be campaigning in Tripuraon Fridaywhich is a tad too late. The royal family of Tripura have been traditional Congress supporters and have represented the Party in the Assembly and Parliament. But as elsewhere, the Congress which lacks the commitment of cadre-based parties is shriveling in Tripura and political analysts believe it might not even get a single seat this time.

The fight in Tripura is between the CPI(M) and BJP. While BJP claims that it will get at least 35 seats, political observers feel that this is a tall claim. They feel that the Left Front will get at least 39-40 seats.

It was in March last year that the saffron party first launched its massive campaign at the Swami Vivekananda multi-purpose stadium, where the BJP national general secretary, Ram Madhav, declared that the party would oust the ruling Left Front in the Assembly elections. This was a rather unusual experience for many in Tripura – a traditional Left bastion where the red flag is the only thing they are used to seeing. But last year, when I visited Tripura University for some work I was surprised to see the saffron-lotus flag flying atop rooftops and small business establishments. It was almost as if the hoi-polloi had accepted the BJP. I engaged a few university professors on this issue but they ducked my question and that is understandable since all universities are traditionally Left bastions.

Since the BJP won Assam in 2016, and later formed the Government in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, the saffron party has been on a high. The formation of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) headed by Assam’s Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who is also the BJP’s poster boy in the North East has only emboldened the Party to make inroads into every nook and corner of the region, including Meghalaya and Nagaland where the BJP has launched a bold campaign.

In Tripura, the BJP has been coming second in by-elections and elections to the tribal autonomous councils. They have moved from a vote share of 22% in 2015 to 36% in 2016. The fact that people want a change after two decades of the Left rule is also a reality. Bijan Dhar the general secretary of the CPI(M) unit of Agartala admits that the BJP is their main rival and that the Left cannot underestimate the rise of the BJP. But the fact also remains that the BJP has poached people from the Congress, the TMC and the IPFT because it had no known faces.

In Tripura 20 of the 60 seats are reserved for tribals. The strategic alliance with the IPFT is expected to win the BJP a few seats in these areas. Former MLA of the IPFT, Rajeswar Debbarma who leads the Party has been blowing hot and cold about an alliance with the BJP but even he sees the futility of relying on the Congress Party to achieve the goals of his Party; hence the last minute alliance with the BJP!

Tripura is one day away from the elections. The campaign period has seen a lot of bloodsheds, and we can only hope that polling is peaceful.

Meanwhile, the CPI(M)’s main poll plank has been to ensure a climate of peace and security which has been won after a long innings provided by a stable government led by Manik Sarkar. It merits mentioning that Tripura is the first troubled state in the country where the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958) has been revoked by any chief minister and that is no mean achievement.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)