AGARTALA, Jan 4— Opposition Congress and its tribal ally Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura at last reached a seat adjustment agreement at a meeting in New Delhi last evening.
The final adjustment was reached at “17+1” formula which means INPT will fight it out in 17 ST reserved seats and one general in the next Assembly elections. Though the number of the seats to be shared was finalized, both the Congress and INPT leaders are tight-lipped about the constituencies to be exchanged. When contacted in Delhi, they said AICC president Sonia Gandhi would announce the seats formally, expectedly today itself.
The constituencies will also be finalised at a meeting with the Congress chief. The meeting was attended by AICC incharge of Tripura Manishankar Aiyer, PCC president, Birajit Sinha, INPT general secretary Rabindra Debbarma and vice president Debabrata Koloy.
Sources said, INPT had earlier decided that it would leave Jolaibari, Pecharthal and Salema ST seats to Congress in exchange for Panisagar general seat in North Tripura. But a the last moment IWOT, women wing of the INPT, demanded that Pecharthal seat be given to them. Debi Chakma of the IWOT is the aspirant for this seat.
On the other hand Congress also asked its tribal ally to leave one ST seat in West Tripura district to it, preferably Krishnapur. But INPT is not ready to leave the Krishnapur constituency to Congress as it has two strong contenders here—INPT leader Sabda Kumar Jamatia and its youth wing, TYF, leader Mebar Kumar Jamatia. As the present condition stands, only one seat has been finalised from where a tribal leader of the Congress may join the fray—the seat is Jolaibari.
However, leaders of the both the Congress and INPT say that the differences are not serious and will be easily sorted out at the meeting with AICC president Sonia Gandhi.
“We expect to meet Sonia Gandhi tomorrow if she can spare time. If the meeting takes place tomorrow morning, by afternoon she will announce the final seat adjustment to the media”, said a Congress leader from New Delhi yesterday.