Election Campaign in Tripura’s heartland Dhanpur is heated on

Sonamura (Tripura): “Tripurar bhalo din pherot aita se, Kalo raat sesh hoita se” (The good days of Tripura are back, the dark night is over), the song in the local dialect is set to a popular folk tune. , which is playing from the top microphone. The truck collided with CPI(M) volunteers who, wearing red tees with hammer and sickle insignia, ran along the highway towards Dhanpur.
The battle continues for Dhanpur, about eight kilometers from the larger town of Sonamura.
The BJP has put its Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik in a battle of prestige to capture the Left bastion, where she lost to former chief minister and communist veteran Manik Sarkar five years ago.

“Takkar er lorai hobe, kintu amra jitbo (It will be a tough battle but we will win)”, a confident Bhoumik, Tripura’s first woman Union Minister, said in an interview to PTI.
“I am working hard for the entire West Tripura Parliamentary Constituency (including Dhanpur), I especially focused on my tribal villages,” she said.
The old warhorse of the Communist Party government, which represented the constituency four times in a row, is not contesting the election, but after being in power seven times in the last 50 years, the state is in an alliance with the Congress to try to win it again. Focusing on touring.
The CPI(M) has fielded Kaushik Chanda in the battle for Dhanpur in what locals hope will be a straight fight between the lotus and hammer, sickle and stars symbols, despite the TMC Habil Miah and Tipra Motha have been nominated for Amiya Dayal Naotia.
The constituency, mostly agricultural, has only 48,000 voters, of whom about 40,000 voted last time. About 11,000 tribals and 14,000 Muslims in the area make it an interesting demographic mix for campaign organizers. Sarkar had won the seat in 2018 by a little over 5000 votes.
“The CPI(M) has been winning this seat since the 1970s. We are more confident that we will retain it this time as well. The tribals voted Tipra Motha in the Tribal Autonomous District Council in 2021, but this for the state elections and we are sure he will stick with the party like in the past,” said Ratan Saha, CPI(M). ) Sonamura Sub-Division Committee Secretary.
A revived CPI(M), which had been losing ground since losing the 2018 assembly polls, is showing its strength in the region. The number of red flags is much higher than the red and yellow banners of lotus or Tipra Motha. Convoys of trucks and motorcycles carrying SFI (Communist Students Wing) and CPI(M) workers are common here.
“If they have been able to revive, it is because we have provided democratic governance. During their tenure (of the Left government) they did not campaign properly for any other party. They were not allowed to run. They will fight their own battle, we will fight in our own way,” said Bhoumik.
“You will see (despite everything), we will come back to power,” added the Minister of State for Social Welfare in the Union government.
The central police force has been heavily deployed amid the possibility of clashes between rival political groups, while road-checking of vehicles by Election Commission officials to search for cash and country liquor is common.

“We are working hard for the development of the state. We are the only party which has worked for all communities. Our motto is development for all,” said Bhoumik.
He added that he was confident that the tribals would not be swayed by the “mysterious concept of a greater Tipraland that seems to be beyond India’s borders” and that he would work with the BJP on development projects including hospitals, roads and social welfare. Actions will be based. Ration, which was provided by the “double-engine government” (BJP governments both at the Center and in the states).
The idea of ​​Greater Tipraland is not limited to Tripura alone but also attempts to include Tripuris living in Assam, Mizoram and Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.

Tripura itself has become an electoral battleground for the BJP and opposition parties where the Lotus symbol is under heavy pressure to maintain its hold on the small northeastern state.
Both BJP and CPI(M) are working hard to intensify their election campaigns. For the BJP, it ranges from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. For the CPI(M), party general secretary Sitaram Yechuri, firebrand politburo member Brinda Karat and Bengal unit secretary are holding public meetings.

Asked about the possibility of Bhoumik being made the chief minister of the state, if it wins the hustings, the Union minister smiled and said: “It doesn’t happen. I’m just a party soldier”.