Having
predictably made a clean sweep of all twenty seven ADC seats to which elections were held on May 3, the Left Front in Tripura has further consolidated its traditionally impregnable support base among the indigenous people . Even during the run-up to the polls it had been evident that the Front would make a clean sweep for the second successive time-the Front had achieved the feat first in 2005 polls-but the margin of victories have left the opposition dumb founded. Besides capturing all twenty seven seats-the election had been countermanded in Maharanipur-Chelagang seat following the death of BJP candidate Ranjit Jamatya on April 17-the Front has bagged 63.80% of votes, pushing the Congress to a distant second in eighteen constituencies, regional INPT in eight seats and IPFT in a single seat. Barring the effective implementation of a host of centrally sponsored schemes including NREGA, Bharat Nirman, PMGSY, Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) et al the Left Front reaped rich electoral dividend for allotting forest land to more than two lakhs of tribal families under provision of forest right act-2006. This success, bolstered further by the formidable organisational network of CPI (M), laid the foundation of the Front victory.
The opposition fared poorly as the Congress could secure only 21.16% votes while the INPT ended up with a paltry 11.89% votes and its breakaway faction IPFT fared even worse, securing only 0.74% votes. This time Congress entered the ADC poll fray without an alliance with a regional outfit and , despite the poor show compared with the LF, the party seems to have gained in acceptability and votes in the ADC areas dominated by the indigenous people. In eighteen of the twenty seven constituencies that went to the polls Congress achieved the second position. A significant silverlining for Congress is the sharp rise in its vote share compared with what the beleaguered party could achieve in 2005. In the last ADC polls held in 2005 Congress had bagged an insignificant 12.69% votes but this time the vote share has registered a 8.47% hike.
By contrast, the poll outcome seems to have sounded a practical death knell for sectarian regionalism in Tripura's politics as indigenous people have put on record their choice in favour of mainstream political forces . This trend had been noticed in the assembly elections held in February 2008 when regional INPT could barely scrape through in a single seat by a wafer thin margin , having lost five seats they had in the outgoing assembly then. The Left Front had captured 19 of the twenty assembly seats reserved for scheduled tribes. Fed up with the sectarianism of regional forces and their thinly veiled links with militant outfits the indigenous people started shifting loyalty away from them and the trend stands confirmed by the outcome of the just-concluded ADC polls.
With the successful conclusion of ADC election, history of ethnic conflict in Tripura spawned by demographic imbalance in the post-partition era seems to have turned full circle. In the year 1967 the Left forces represented by the CPI (M) and CPI had suffered a major debacle , managing to win only three of the thirty seats in then territorial assembly , giving a landslide victory to ruling Congress amidst nationwide reverses suffered by the party that year. This had happened because of the Left parties demand for Autonomous District Council (ADC) based on 5th schedule for the indigenous people and owing to the fear psychosis created in the minds of majority non-tribal Bengali voters by Congress that ADC for indigenous people would finally render them refugees for the second time. The debacle suffered by the Left parties that had been fighting consistently for indigenous people's rights since the mid-forties had far reaching consequence as a group of educated indigenous youths came together to launch Tripura's first major regional party, Tripura Upajati Juba Samity (TUJS) in June 1967 with a four point charter of demands: ADC for indigenous people, introduction of 'Kokborok' language as medium of instruction in Roman script for indigenous school students, inner-line regulation for areas inhabited by indigenous people and restoration of alienated land. How the charter of demands which also incorporated the demand for 6th schedule since 1969 triggered political upheavals and ethnic polarisation in Tripura manifested in the rise of shady 'Amra Bangali', two successive ethnic riots in 1979 and 1980 and a succession of insurgencies are crucial chapters of post-independent Tripura's history.
But the issue-based regional forces that had set off the ethnic explosion started losing steam after almost all their major demands including the extension of 6th schedule had been fulfilled by 1985. In order to retain their relevance in state politics TUJS which subsequently split and resplit in many groups and parties espoused the politics of competitive tribalism by raising demands for autonomous state under Article 244-A of the constitution and other fissiparous issues but the indigenous electorate remained unconvinced. As long as NLFT militants retained their fire and manpower the TUJS, reincarnated as INPT managed to win seats in elections with active support from 'invisible friends', a euphemism for militants. The situation by mid nineties had deteriorated so much that even TUJS could not contest the ADC polls of 2000 because of threat of attacks from NLFT rebels who subsequently rigged at gun-point the entire election in favour of TUJS's breakaway faction IPFT that captured power through the rigged election in 2000. Almost inevitably total chaos reigned supreme in the ADC during the five years of IPFT's stewardship of the Council to deep disillusionment among the indigenous people who bore the brunt of the twin offensives launched by banned militants as well as security forces and the collapse of ADC administration. They patiently waited for a chance to retaliate and the opportunity presented itself in the form of ADC polls in 2005 in which the indigenous people gave a resounding mandate to the Left Front, ensuring their victory in all 28 elective seats.
Apart from the election and its foreseen outcome, what is more significant is that through the process of socio-economic and political evolution indigenous people in Tripura seem to have graduated from their tribal identity and emerged as a vibrant and assertive nationality. According to parameters set by political scientist Dr Anthony D.Smith in his magnum opus 'Ethnic Origin of Nations', a nomadic tribal people can be designated as a full-fledged nationality group when they settle down to a stable social life in a contiguous area with a distinctive culture, language, history, legends and myths. These conditions require to be supplemented by intrusion of social contradictions, consciousness of individual property rights, class formation and growth of capitalism in at least rudiments as preconditions for identifying a traditional tribal group as a full-fledged nationality. Barring a few thouand Reang shifting cultivators , identified as Tripura's lone 'primitive group', the mainstream indigenous people of Tripura had fulfilled all the preconditions decades ago but the ADC and its evolution over the past three decades have shown that they can independently exercise political power without tutelage from another community. A clinching proof of indigenous people's emergence as a full-fledged nationality trying to carve out a niche for themselves in the larger arena of socio-economy and politics !