A DECAYING CONGRESS BATTLES FOR SURVIVAL IN TRIPURA REDUCED TO MINOR PLAYER IN STATE POLITICS

The Congress party has been going through a deep crisis in Tripura. The party has weakened so much that it is almost reduced to a minor party in state politics. Currently, it is not even considered a major party both in the hills and the plains.

In the first Lok Sabha elections of 1951-52, the undivided CPI won the two Lok Sabha seats of the state. It retained both the seats in the 1957 general elections, and in the 1971 Lok Sabha polls, CPI(M) won both the seats. But when it came to the legislative assembly elections, the Congress, which ruled the state for around 18 years, had an edge in the initial period.

In the first legislative assembly elections held in 1963, the Congress emerged victorious and Sachindra Lal Singh became the first chief minister of Tripura, which was then a union territory. The party also went on to win the second and third legislative assembly elections.

It was in the 1977 state assembly elections when the party faced its first major defeat. Interestingly, the assembly elections were held on December 31, 1977, and results were declared in the first week of January, 1978. The Congress, which saw desertions of some prominent leaders to Janata Party and Tripura State Congress For Democracy, failed to open its account with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left Front coming to power with a gigantic mandate by winning 56 seats out of 60. Although Congress returned to power ten years later in the 1988 assembly elections, the signs of weakening of the grand old party started to appear. In the 1988 assembly elections, it had to ally with Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti (TUJS), the then major tribal-based party of the state, to defeat the Left in the tribal-dominated areas.

After the 1988 state assembly elections, Congress never returned to power in the state but it remained the main opposition party, particularly in the plain areas. In the tribal areas, it had to depend on different tribal parties like TUJS, Tripura National Volunteers (TNV), a militant organization turned political party, Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT) and National Conference of Tripura (NCT) at different times to fight against the CPI(M)-led Left Front.

However, it was after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that the Congress started declining with Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party eating into the votes of the grand old party. But with BJP’s growing popularity in the state, TMC got reduced into an almost non-existent party and most of the Congress votes shifted towards BJP in the 2018 state assembly elections.

After the BJP formed the first government in 2018, replacing the Left Front, the main opposition CPI(M) failed to fight the saffron party. This situation provided a space for the Congress, which under royal scion Pradyot Kishore Barman for a time emerged as the main opposition against the BJP. But Pradyot left the grand old party over differences regarding the demand of implementation of the National Register of Citizens in Tripura with the party high command. And the CPI(M) too started to reorganize the party and soon started to regain the opposition space from the Congress.

The situation didn’t improve for the party, which was already dealing with the internal factional battles. The then acting state Congress president Pijush Kanti Bishwas didn’t get the backing from the other powerful faction of the party led by Birajit Singha. The internal factional schisms led to the desertion of senior party leader Subal Bhowmik to TMC, which is reattempting to gain a foothold in the northeastern state. Congress has been losing its leaders, activists and supporters to the TMC. Mamata’s party in the north-eastern state is particularly growing at the expense of the grand old party.

If TMC wasn’t enough, Pijush Kanti Bishwas along with his son Pujan Bishwas and veteran party leader Tapas Dey left the Congress to form their own regional party — Tripura Democratic Front. Although TDF leadership, as of now, is yet to gain a foothold on the ground, the party is already friendly towards Pradyot’s TIPRA Motha, which is currently the ruling party of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC).

To rejuvenate the Congress in the state, the party high command has given the reins of the party to Birajit Singha once again. The party, however, isn’t considered a major contender in the civic polls, which will be held on November 25. It has failed to field candidates for all the 51 wards of the Agartala Municipal Corporation — and is contesting only in 33 seats. In most of these seats, the party is not in a serious contest — where the fight is mostly among BJP, CPI(M) led Left Front and TMC.

The grand old party is in a serious contest only in the Kailashahar Municipal Council. Kailashahar has been the battleground of Birajit, who lost the seat in 2018 polls to CPI(M)’s Moboshar Ali. Kailashahar Municipal Council elections have been a prestigious fight for Birajit led Congress where it is locked in a tight fight against BJP and CPI(M). In other civic bodies, the party is contesting only in selected wards. The undeniable fact is that Congress is in a deep crisis in the state and Birajit has a very difficult task to revive the grand old party.