Poll in 3 NE states: Parleys begin in Delhi and states on seat-sharing

 NEW DELHI/AGARTALA: A day after the Election Commission announced the schedule of the Assembly polls in three northeastern states - Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland - hectic parleys have started in New Delhi and the state capitals between various parties.

Leaders of the BJP and its ally Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) in Nagaland held meetings in New Delhi in the presence of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) and former royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman also held separate "inconclusive" meetings with Sarma in the national capital.

Deb Barman reportedly reiterated his stand that his party would ally with those parties who would give in writing assurance to their 'Greater Tipraland State' demand. The TIPRA, since 2021, has been demanding the elevation of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) areas by granting of 'Greater Tipraland State' under Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution.

In Agartala, the Congress and the CPI-M held a second round of meetings about their seat adjustments for the February 16 elections. Congress Tripura state president Birajit Sinha, CPI-M state secretary and former MP Jitendra Chowdhury, Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman, former MLA Asish Kumar Kumar Saha, Left Front convener Narayan Kar and a few other leaders were present in the one-and-a-half-hour-long meeting.

After the meeting, the Congress and the CPI-M leaders under the banner of "Secular Democratic Forces" apprised the media about the pre-poll violence in Tripura.

Barman said that people have serious apprehension about whether they would be able to cast votes or not in the forthcoming Assembly polls. "Since the BJP government came to power in Tripura in 2018, people could not cast their vote in different elections. We (Congress and CPI-M) came together for restoring law-and-order situation and democracy," he told the media.

In Delhi, the Assam Chief Minister accompanied by the Nagaland BJP leaders after the meeting with NDPP leaders, including Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, said that the seat-sharing has been finalized.

"The NDPP would field candidates in 40 seats and the BJP would contest in the remaining 20 seats in Nagaland. BJP would go alone in Meghalaya. Another BJP team has been looking after the seat sharing and alliance affairs of Tripura," Sarma told the media in Delhi.

In another development in Tripura, responding to the influential tribal-based party TIPRA's appeal, the ruling BJP's ally, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) agreed to hold discussions on contesting the February 16 Assembly election together for the all-round development and protection of the tribals.

IPFT's working president and state minister Prem Kumar Reang, in a letter to TIPRA supremo, said: "I express my sincere gratitude for the proposal to unite IPFT and TIPRA in any form for solving the question of survivability and existence of the Tiprasas with an endeavour of achieving our demand for Tipraland and Greater Tipraland state."

Senior TIPRA leader and Deputy Chief Executive Member of the TTAADC Animesh Debbarma told IANS on Thursday night that after TIPRA chief Deb Barman returned to Agartala, the formal meeting with the IPFT leaders would be held to take the next course of action. (IANS)

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