Seat-sharing talks between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and TIPRA Motha have entered their final stage ahead of the upcoming Village Council elections, with a crucial meeting held between the two parties to lock in the arrangement.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, TIPRA Motha MLA Ranjit Debbarma said candidates who have filed nominations in seats covered by the agreement will withdraw them in line with the seat-sharing understanding, adding that the same arrangement would apply to BJP candidates as well.
BJP leader and Minister Ratan Lal Nath, addressing the media separately, said that in constituencies where TIPRA Motha has fielded multiple candidates, some would withdraw as part of the deal, and BJP would reciprocate in seats where it had done the same. Nath said roughly 80 percent of the seat-sharing arrangement has already been finalised, with the remaining issues expected to be ironed out within the next few hours.
BJP state president Abhishek Debbarma said the NDA alliance currently faces no serious challenge in the Village Council elections, taking a swipe at the Congress and CPI(M) and predicting a poor showing for the opposition, potentially even the loss of security deposits. He said the BJP-TIPRA Motha alliance’s campaign will center on the government’s development record, with the two parties approaching voters on the strength of governance and development work.
Asked why BJP and TIPRA Motha, which contested separately in the ADC elections, are now running together for the Village Council polls, Debbarma pointed to TIPRA Motha’s role as a partner in the state government as the basis for the joint contest. He added that with the 2028 Assembly elections on the horizon, the alliance has no interest in engaging with what he called the negative politics of the Congress and CPI(M).
Debbarma also confirmed that the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), the third NDA partner, will be part of the electoral arrangement, even though no IPFT representative attended the meeting in person. He said the necessary discussions had already taken place over the phone, making physical attendance unnecessary.
With these developments, the electoral understanding among BJP, TIPRA Motha and IPFT ahead of the Village Council elections is largely in place. Focus now shifts to finalising the remaining seats and the formal withdrawal of nominations as the seat-sharing arrangement takes effect.
