바카라Tripurar bhalo din pherot aita se, Kalo raat sesh hoita se바카라 (Tripura바카라s good days are back, the dark night is over), the song in local dialect set to a popular folk tune, blared from a microphone atop the truck crammed with CPI(M) volunteers wearing red tees with the hammer and sickle sign, rushing along the highway to Dhanpur.
The battle for Dhanpur, about eight kilometres from the sub-divisional headquarters of Sonamura, is on.
The BJP has pitted its central minister Pratima Bhoumik in a prestige fight to wrest the Left bastion, where she had lost five years back to former chief minister and Communist veteran Manik Sarkar.
바카라Takkar er lorai hobe, kintu amra jitbo (It will be a tough battle but we shall win),바카라 beamed a confident Bhoumik, the first Tripura woman to be a central minister,said.
바카라I have been working hard for the entire West Tripura parliamentary constituency (which includes Dhanpur) 바카라 I especially concentrated on our tribal villages,바카라 she said.
The Communist party바카라s old warhorse Sarkar who represented the constituency four times in a row is not contesting the election but is concentrating on touring the state to try and win it back in alliance with Congress, after being in power for seven terms in the last 50 years.
The CPI(M) has fielded Kaushik Chanda in the Dhanpur battle which locals expect to be a straight fight between lotus and the hammer-sickle-and-star symbols, despite TMC fielding Habil Miah and Tipra Motha nominating Amiya Dayal Naotia.
The constituency, largely agricultural, has just 48,000 voters, of whom last time around 40,000 voted. Some 11,000 tribals and 14,000 Muslims in the area make it an interesting demographic mix for campaign managers. Sarkar had won the seat in 2018 by a little over 5,000 votes.
바카라The CPI(M) has been winning this seat since 1970s. We are more than confident that we will retain it this time too. The tribals had voted for Tipra Motha in the tribal autonomous district council in 2021, but this is for the state elections and we believe that they will continue to be with the party as they have in the past,바카라 said Ratan Saha, CPI(M) Sonamura sub-division committee secretary.
A revived CPI(M) which had been losing ground ever since it lost the 2018 assembly election is visibly displaying its strength in the area. The number of red flags far outnumber the lotus or the Tipra Motha바카라s red-yellow banners. Convoys of trucks and motorcycles ferrying SFI (the communist students바카라 wing) and CPI(M) activists are common here.
바카라If they have been able to revive, then it is because we have delivered democratic governance. In their time (Left government바카라s rule) they did not allow any other party to campaign properly. They will fight their own battles, we will fight in our own way,바카라 Bhoumick said.
바카라You will see (despite everything), we will come back to power,바카라 the minister of state for social welfare in the central government added.
Central police forces have been deployed in strength given the possibility of clashes between rival political groups while road checks by election commission officials of vehicles to search for stashes of cash and local liquor which may be carried to sway voters are common.
바카라We have been working hard to develop the state. We are the only party which has worked for all communities 바카라 our motto is development for all,바카라 claimed Bhoumik.
She added that she was confident that tribals would not be swayed by the 바카라mystifying concept of greater Tipraland which seems to extend beyond India바카라s boundary바카라 and would stay with the BJP based on the development work including hospitals, roads and social welfare measures such as free ration, which the 바카라double engine government바카라 (BJP governments in both the centre and state) had delivered.
The 바카라Greater Tipraland바카라 idea is not restricted only to Tripura but seeks to also include Tripuris living in Assam, Mizoram, and Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
Tripura itself has become the stage for a test battle ahead of the 2024 general elections for the BJP and the opposition parties in an election where the lotus symbol is under enormous pressure to retain its stranglehold over this tiny Northeastern state.
Both the BJP and CPI(M) have flown in heavyweights to lend heft to their campaigning. 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 unit바카라s secretary are holding public meetings.
When questioned about the possibility of Bhoumik being made chief minister of the state if the party returned to power in the state, the central minister said with a smile: 바카라It does not arise. I am just a soldier of the party 바카라바카라.
