Agartala, 16 Oct 2022: “In a recent notification from Tripura State Election Commission, Village Committee Election in TTAADC Areas is to be postponed till the conduct of Tripura Assembly Election 2023, and which is a denial of the judgement/verdict made by the Hight Court of Tripura”, said Dy. CEM Animesh Debbarma, in a press meet on Sunday.
Dy. CEM stated that Village Committee Election in TTAADC Areas has been lying pending since 7th March 2021, and which is one and half year of duration. There are total of 587 village committees in TTAADC area, and the non-conduct of election in accurate time means a deprivation from proper development schemes and infrastructures for the living persons in the areas. Whereas all the elections including panchayats etc. in non-TTAADC areas was done in proper time. A proper body of committee is mandatory for functioning of funds and developments, and which could only be possible after the conduct of Village Committee Election.
The High Court of Tripura, in a recent verdict, requested the state government to announce the schedule of village committee polls of Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) and complete the poll process with declaration of results by first week of November.
The HC gave the order based on a public interest litigation that sought to constitute 587 village committees as the previous term of the elected bodies lapsed on March last year.
Accordingly, the state Election Commission served notification on guidelines for preparing electoral rolls of the village committees’ constituencies and polling stations.
With the High Court’s verdict on the village committee polls, the TIPRA Motha headed by royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarma started their series of meetings with the grassroot workers recently.
“In the meetings, our special focus is to prepare strategy for the village committee polls,” said TIPRA Motha president BK Hrankhawl.
Founded in 2021, the TIPRA Motha took the ruling BJP’s ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) in the backfoot as their Greater Tipraland demand overpowered IPFT’s poll agenda Tipraland. Greater Tipraland is a proposed state for the indigenous communities of Tripura and other northeastern states including neighbouring country, Bangladesh. Currently, the party is in power in the TTAADC.
With the target of forming their government for a second term in 2023, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already started their activities to strengthen their organisation. The saffron party discussed political, economic and other development-related issues during their different series of meetings ranging from booth-level to state committee. A training camp was also organised for the booth-level workers with special concentration on finding shortcomings in each and every consituency.
Earlier in June, the BJP party triumphed in the by-polls by winning three out of four Assembly constituencies.
Political experts feel that the BJP’s popularity among the indigenous population face tough challenges with arrival of the royal scion’s party.
But, the reactions and reviews from intellectuals and different political parties indicates that the Village Committee Election could create a downfall mishap for the ruling, and that’s why by ignoring the High Courts Judgement, the condition is being laid out to strike out the risky semi-final before the final match.
