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Four in a row in Tripura

Everyone loves change but only a change for the better. Anti-incumbency sentiment found no place in the Tripura Assembly election, as the people voted the Left Front led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to a fourth straight win with a bigger majority than before. The Left parties won 49 of the 60 seats, with the CPI(M) alone taking 46. This left the opposition alliance of the Congress and the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) with a paltry 11 seats. I n 2003, the Left Front bettered its previous tally, finding new supporters not only among the majority Bengali-speaking population but also among the tribal people. Voters never tire of a well-performing government and the Manik Sarkar government scored on various counts — from taming insurgency to developing livelihood resources for farmers and tribals. The firm handling of the insurgency yielded results in other areas too: Tripura was no longer seen as a troubled State, and investors came, not just from the rest of India but from neighbouring countries too. China, Japan, Thailand, Bangladesh, and even Germany have shown interest in either investing in or providing financial assistance to the little north-eastern State. The insurgency has not been totally eliminated but in addressing the genuine concerns of the tribal people, the State government ensured that those resorting to violence did not have support or sympathy on the ground. Over the last eight years, when insurgency-related incidents saw a sharp decline, Tripura also saw a drop in the percentage of people living below the poverty line.

As significant as the victory of the incumbents is the defeat of the alliance between the Congress and the INPT. The latter has a record of violence behind it and is partly responsible for the intimidation of the Bengali-speaking population in the State. The nexus between the Congress and the INPT (in all its incarnations) goes back a long way though they evidently have little in common other than opposition to the Left. The 2008 vote is certainly a people’s statement of disapproval for this opportunistic alliance. Although one of the constituents, the Forward Bloc, walked out following disagreement over seat-sharing, the ruling front showed itself as a cohesive unit with a well-defined programme. The remnants of the decades-old insurgency aside, the challenges before Chief Minister Manik Sarkar remain on the socio-economic front: the livelihood concerns of tribals and forest dwellers, developing human resources, and tackling unemployment. The small State needs a lot more help from the Central government in its efforts to move up another level in development.

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