A delegation of Tipra Motha Party (TMP) of Tripura suddenly left for Guwahati on Wednesday.
As per the report coming in the delegation will meet Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
TMP supremo Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman had earlier announced an indefinite hunger strike until the party’s demands are met by the Centre.
According to Deb Barman, the central government was to appoint an interlocutor by March 27 to review a ‘constitutional solution’ to the TMP’s demands for socio-economic development and greater autonomy for tribals.
TMP MLA and in-charge of the party’s media unit, Paul Dangshu, said the six-member delegation, led by party president Deb Barman, went to Guwahati to attend an important meeting. Other members of the delegation include TMP president Bijoy Kumar Harangkhwal, Animesh Debbarma, Brishaketu Debbarma, Biswajit Koloi, MLA and former minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia.
Deb Barman had announced on Monday that he would go for an indefinite hunger strike till the Centre appoints an interlocutor by March 27.
He had earlier said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had informed him on March 23 that the Centre would appoint an interlocutor by March 27.
The interlocutor will study the area for greater autonomy and socio-economic development of tribals, so that a ‘constitutional solution’ to TMP’s demands can be found.
Later after a telephonic conversation with Amit Shah, Deb Burman had met Sarma and told that Sarma would brief Shah about the facts of the matter.
The TMP, the first tribal-based party in Tripura since 1952, created history in the February 16 assembly elections.
The party emerged as the major opposition party in Tripura by winning 13 seats in the 60-member Tripura Assembly.
The ruling BJP is trying to persuade the TMP to join the state cabinet headed by Chief Minister Manik Saha and has kept three ministerial posts vacant for the tribal party.
Deb Barman, however, said that he would not join the BJP-led cabinet until his demands are met. Since annexing the politically important Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) in April 2021, the TMP has sought to upgrade the autonomous body’s territories to the status of a ‘Greater Tipraland State’ or a separate state under Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution.
Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is one of the BJP’s key strategists in the Northeast region, recently told in Agartala that talks between the BJP and the TMP can resume, but it should be within the constitutional framework and not Tripura subject to division.
Sarma, who held several rounds of talks with Deb Barman ahead of the assembly polls, had told that talks could resume, but “we cannot talk about the Greater Tipraland state.”
On March 8, the day the BJP-led coalition assumed power in Tripura for the second consecutive term, Amit Shah held a two-hour meeting with TMP leaders and discussed their demands.
Apart from Shah, BJP President J.P. Nadda, Chief Minister of Assam, his Tripura counterpart Manik Saha and all 13 TMP MLAs and senior party leaders were in the meeting.
