Left retains Tripura tribal council with thumping majority
By IANSFriday, May 7, 2010
AGARTALA - The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front Friday stormed back to power in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) for the second consecutive term.
According to the state election commission, the Left parties won handsomely in 25 seats with the dominant CPI-M securing 24 seats while its ally Communist Party of India (CPI) bagged one seat.
The Congress and other parties were yet to open their account, an official told reporters. Counting of votes is on in two seats in Kanchanpur in north Tripura.
The council, election for which was held Monday, has 30 members, two of who are nominated. Polling in one seat was postponed after a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate died after being bitten by a dog.
With this victory, the Left Front has captured the TTAADC four times (1985, 1995, 2005 and 2010) after the autonomous body was formed under the sixth schedule of the Indian constitution in 1985.
The CPI-M and its allies, the CPI, Forward Block and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) were pitted against the Congress and the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), a tribal based party.
The BJP and Trinamool Congress also put up candidates for 22 and 13 seats respectively while 43 independents were in the fray.
Despite an electoral pact with the Congress in West Bengal, the Trinamool fielded candidates against the Congress, which also snapped its 28-year alliance with the INPT just ahead of the council polls.
The council, which has jurisdiction over two-thirds of the state’s area, was constituted in 1985 to facilitate the socio-economic development of the tribals who constitute one third of Tripura’s 3.5 million population.
The council, one of the 16 tribal autonomous bodies of northeast India, is currently controlled by the Left parties.
Reacting to the results, jubilant CPI-M spokesman Gautam Das said: “The tribals voted for peace and development rejecting the terrorists and their sponsors.
“The Left Front government in Tripura would give more power to the TTAADC for the all-round development of the tribals,” Das added.
