Tripura election result
By Barun Das Gupta
Confounding all prophecies of political Cassandras, the CPI-M has stormed back to power in Tripura for the fifth time in a row. The Congress is stunned. It had taken its victory and capture of the red citadel as a foregone conclusion long before the polling. Even when the counting started on February 28 morning and early counting trends showed the CPI-M was decisively leading in most of the constituencies, Congress spokespersons insisted these were the indications from the first one or two rounds of counting only and the trend would be reversed as counting progressed. No such miracle happened. At the end of the day, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar looked calm and collected, there was nothing to be excited about, because he knew the people were with him.
To be fair to the Congressmen of Tripura, it was not only they who had expected a change or paribartan a la West Bengal. Ajoy Biswas, a former CPI-M leader who had turned a primarily tribal-based party into a mass-based party by building up the party organization among the Bengalis, had predicted, after the polling was over, that it would be either a big defeat for the CPI-M or the party would just scrape through with a narrow majority. It was Biswas who had organised the State Government employees and made the party’s first breakthrough among the Bengalis.
His logic was that the State Government employees numbering about 1.75 lakh, together with their family members, made up about 25 per cent of the electorate. The bulk of the employees became bitter about the CPI-M because the State Government had not fully implemented the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission of 2009. Employees in every category were getting a much lower salary that they should have. He argued that this bitterness would be reflected in the polls. It did not. Secondly, it was being argued that disillusionment about the party and the government run by it had also declined among the tribals, the traditional support base of the party. In the event such hopes were also belied. The CPI-M won many tribal, that is, Scheduled Tribes, seats as well.
Why did this happen? The stock answer of the opposition parties and personalities is simple: terror tactics of the ruling party. The State Government employees did not vote against the government because they expected that the pay panel’s recommendations would be implemented, even if it took some time. As for the tribals, it is being said that the party took credit for the various tribal welfare schemes, implemented with central assistance. Also, there was a fear among the tribals that if they voted against the State Government, money for the welfare schemes would dry up and they will suffer. But by and large it is fear which is said to have driven the electorate to voting for the CPI-M.
Those who take this line of argument point out that after the elections when the party had safely returned to power, its cadre had started attacking workers of the opposition parties, especially those of the Congress, all over the State. Newspapers published from capital Agartala are daily carrying reports of houses being burnt in the districts and Congress workers being physically attacked and sent to hospital. Some opposition leaders and activists held a press conference at Agartala on March 3 and warned the State Government that if the ‘terror’ did not stop they would go on a dharna outside the residence of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.
But wise after the event, Ajoy Biswas now gives a more convincing reason for the debacle of the Congress. He says the Congress in Tripura had never conducted a sustained political struggle against the CPI-M. It goes into hibernation each time after the polls and does nothing for the next five years. It is galvanized into action once again only when the next elections start knocking at its door. ‘Look at Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal’, he says. ‘For fifteen years she led an unremitting fight against the CPI-M, suffering physical attacks many a time but never giving up. That won for her the support of the majority of the people. In our State, the only campaign the Congress has conducted is the poll campaign. How can such a party win?’
For all that the fact remains that the CPI-M is firmly in the saddle for the next five years. It says it has served the people devotedly all these years and the people know it. Tripura has continued to develop under the Left Front rule. Party spokesmen claim that the LF government has bent its efforts to developing connectivity, power, industry, agriculture and education. It has given special attention for the upliftment of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, minorities and women. The people voted for the party because they wanted to ensure the uninterrupted and all- round development of the State – in both plains and hills, in rural and urban areas. It is a positive vote for the party that the people trust. (IPA Service)