IPFT rejected Tipra Motha founder Pradyot Kishore Debbarma’s merger proposal
By Our Correspondent
Agartala, November 30, 2025
Signalling fresh churn in the politics of India’s Northeast, the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), a partner in the BJP-led government in Tripura, on Sunday rejected Tipra Motha founder Pradyot Kishore Debbarma’s merger proposal and instead backed a national-level agitation for creation of new states.
The tribal-based regional party announced that it would participate in a protest to be organised in New Delhi by the National Federation of New States (NFNS) before December 20 to push its demand for a separate state—Tipraland—carved out of Tripura’s tribal-dominated areas.
“We have decided to join the protest at Jantar Mantar as a constituent of the national forum of parties demanding creation of new states,” IPFT general secretary Swapan Debbarma told reporters after a Central Executive Committee meeting.
The meeting was attended by Minister Shukla Charan Noatia, IPFT’s lone MLA in the Tripura Assembly, and former minister and party president Prem Kumar Reang.
On Pradyot’s public call for a merger under the proposed One North East platform, Reang said the party remained unconvinced. “The Agartala rally was projected as the formal beginning of a pan-regional party, but the visual messaging was dominated by Tipra Motha flags. They may have greater resources, but we prefer to rely on our core principles,” he said.
Debbarma made it clear that IPFT is unwilling to sacrifice its identity. “We do not want to dissolve our organisation or merge it with any other party. We also do not intend to help a new political entity emerge at the cost of our own existence,” he said.
Reiterating its ideological position, IPFT said separate statehood would remain its foremost demand, alongside implementation of recommendations to upgrade the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council into a territorial council and passage of the pending 125th Constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament.
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