By Bhupen Goswami (PNI)

Guwahati : Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) along with five more tribal parties has a 12-hour TTAADC bandh on January 12 on four-point charter of demands. Declaring the decision at press conference at Agartala Press Club here, INPT general secretary Jagadish Debbarma said six political parties including INPT, NCT, IPFT Tipraha and TPP have decided to observe a 12-hour bandh in tribal council area on four demands. The demands including judicial inquiry into Madhabbari incident, Rs. 25 lakh compensation for each victim, resignation of Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and withdraw of false cases registered against bandh supporters.

Tribal Students’ Federation (TSF) and NESO have supported the January 12 bandh in ADC areas. IPFT, a partner of state’s coalition government has also demanded high level judicial inquiry into Madhabbari incident on January 12 . “We want the government to order a judicial inquiry as possibility of CPI(M) hand in the clash could not be rule out”, said Tribal Welfare Minister and IPFT general secretary Mever Kumar Jamatia at a press conference here. Meanwhile, a six-member team of NESO headed by AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharjee arrived here to review the situation. On the first day, the NESO team visited victims of Madhabbari incident at GB Hospital and held meeting with TSF leaders.

They will visit Madhabbari area where six bandh supporters were injured in police firing on January 1, to know the ground reality.The BJP’s electoral feats in the northeast in the past two and half years, which turned the party from an also-ran to the biggest in the region, could face its first major stumble in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, thanks to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.Several student bodies and civil society groups have been opposing the bill for months and on Tuesday the region came to a near standstill due to a shutdown called by North East Students Union (NESO) in protest against the legislation.Despite the strong sentiments on the ground the Bharatiya Janata Party decided to brazen it out and is pushing for passage of the bill barely months ahead of the general elections. That move could affect its aim to bag 21 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the region.

At present the BJP is heading governments in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura and is part of the ruling coalition in Nagaland and Meghalaya. In 2014, the party had won eight seats in the northeast—seven in Assam and one in Arunachal Pradesh.The NPP-led government, of which the BJP is also a part, had earlier passed a cabinet resolution opposing the Bill. The party is a constituent of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a conglomerate of anti-Congress parties in the region. Meghalaya has two Lok Sabha seats. NPP, which has four MLAs in Manipur, is also part of the BJP-led government headed by N Biren Singh. In Tripura, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), which is a part of the BJP-led government, is also opposing the bill vehemently. The state also has two Lok Sabha seats.Mizoram’s ruling party Mizo National Front (MNF), which is also a part of NEDA, has also voiced its resentment against the bill and chief minister Zoramthanga extended full support to Tuesday’s shutdown. The state has one Lok Sabha seat. In Nagaland, where the BJP is part of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) led government, the state cabinet on Tuesday resolved to urge the Centre to review and examine the bill to ensure that it is in consonance with provisions of the constitution. Arunachal Pradesh could witness simultaneous assembly polls along with the general election. This would be the first time the Pema Khandu-led government will face voters as BJP candidates—in 2014 Khandu and others from his cabinet had won on Congress tickets.Citizenship Amendment bill could be disastrous for BJP in north-east