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An article published in a vernacular magazine in December last
year , preceded by another on a page in this website on the same
subject, had caused considerable consternation in Congress
circles with the votaries of 'Mission-2008' dubbing both as
products of a jaundiced-or should we say crimson-view. Two
eventful months followed and the day of reckoning arrived on
February 23 to set a record : at 92% the highest turn-out in
Indian electoral history.
This record turn-out itself triggered wild and even ecstatic
speculations over the possible tally in the opposition and the
principles on which the spoils and booty of power would be
distributed . It took only a fortnight for the misplaced
optimism to be punctured by an overwhelmingly positive mandate
in favour of the left front. For all the bubble of rosy promises
the electorate remained steadfast in their loyalty to the Front
and showered it with blessings in the form of votes-a replica of
the 1993 outcome at 49 for LF and 11 for Congress and allies.
All along, the leading lights of the Front had predicted more
seats and more votes for them and the final tally matched their
expectations .
How does one interpret this outcome ? From even a cursory
ananlysis, what emerges from the nature of votes polled is that
the era of sectarian regionalism in state politics has outlived
its utility . The dividing line between the Left Front and
Congress led alliance is 8% votes-that is , a shift of 1.81%
votes in favour of the Front that has delivered it eight more
seats than last time when the Front's lead in terms of polling
percentage had been 6.19%. But it is more in the case of twenty
tribal reserve seats as the left front is ahead by as much as
9.27% there . In terms of seats the reality is evident from the
fact that the Front captured nineteen out of altogether twenty
tribal reserve seats and Mr Bijay Hrangkhawal , the lone
non-left winner in a tribal seat, managed to survive the
onslaught by a paltry 115 votes.Significantly ,emergence of the
politics of regionalism in Tripura had followed the debacle of
CPI (M) and CPI in the election to the territorial assembly in
1967 when the communist parties had won only three out of thirty
seats. This debacle had shell-shocked the tribal community ,
already reduced to a minority by influx of refugees from East
Pakistan, and a sense of insecurity crept into the minds of the
tribals.
There was a feeling that no force was left at the political
level to protect their interests. This feeling of insecurity
found expression in the launching of Tripura Upajati Juba Samity
(TUJS) in june 1967 ostensibly as a pure tribal-based party .
The TUJS soon gained ground as an issue-based party with a four
point charter of demands that included Autonomous District
Council (ADC) for tribals . How the TUJS movement evoked a
violent response from the shady 'Amra Bangali' and led to riots
in 1979 and 1980 and how the ADC based on 6th schedule was
established is now part of history . But TUJS had outlived its
utility by 1985 when all its major issues had been addressed but
then it became a politics of competitive tribalism with TUJS
fragmenting in a phased manner into parties like TTNC , IPFT and
then the latest merged incarnation INPT. Things had worsened
much earlier in 2000 when banned NLFT rebels had reduced the
entire ADC polls to a farce and even the TUJS had to keep away
from the polls .
The IPFT's anarchical rule in ADC interspersed with the merger
of IPFT and TUJS into INPT in early 2002 and Hrangkhawal's
speech at Geneva in july of the same year continued to erode the
pull of regionalism in tribal politics, generating corresponding
frustration in the minds of the tribals keen to join the
national mainstream .
In
the 2003 assembly polls INPT had managed to secure 6 seats
allegedly through controversial means but the smug reaction of
the party leadership failed to gauge the public mood in the
tribal areas . But the chief minister Manik Sarkar did : having
brought about a subtle shift in party policies since 2000 Sarkar
steadily worked on winning over the tribal masses, once his
party's imgregnable support base, and driving home to people the
unholy nature of his rival parties links with the underground
through sustained camapaign . His incorruptible image and
sterling integrity carried the day in no uncertain terms.
As the state Congress leadership had forged a deal with the INPT
for the polls the tribal electorate made up their minds on whom
to vote-a legal right denied them by gun-toting militants in
successive polls . Since the Election Commission's (EC)
hyper-activism afforded them an opportunity for free and
fearless voting the tribals returned to their original fold with
the Marxists by voting with vengeance . That Bijay Hrangkhawal
managed to keep his head above water in this tsunami remains a
mystery though it is by now proved that Hrangkhawal had survived
the electoral battle with support from non-tribal voters from
his constituency. For all practical purposes the just-concluded
poll battle opens a new chapter in the state's turbulent tribal
politics as the indigenous people have given the unmistakable
signal that they are fed up with sectarianism of regional
politics and keen to play their designated role in the polity .
The tribals of Tripura are no more tribals by all indications ,
they are a full-fledged and assertive nationality . How these
phenomena impact state politics in the coming days remain to be
seen.
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