Agartala: The Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT) will form an alliance with the BJP for the Tripura Assembly elections.

INPT president Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl said on Sunday that the decision was taken unanimously at a party meeting on Saturday evening.

Hrangkhawl said they want more power to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council, introduction of inner-line permit (ILP), direct funding from the Centre, make appointments on their own, better infrastructure and total utilisation of revenue generated, among others.

Asked if the BJP had agreed to their demands, the INPT leader said discussion was still under way. "We plan to build a common minimum programme for the alliance," Hrangkhawl said. The INPT will demand a constitutional amendment for empowerment of the autonomous council, he added.

The Assembly had passed a resolution in 2006 to hand more power to the council.

The rebel-turned-politician said he wouldn't budge from his core demands for the sake of alliance. "I have been struggling for these demands for the last 52 years. We can give some concession to form a working common minimum programme but we can't change our core demands," he said.

The INPT members' central committee (MCC) meeting on Saturday also agreed to adopt the new election symbol.

As it failed to get at least two MLAs elected to the Assembly in 2013, it lost its "two leaves" symbol. The Election Commission has allotted the "saw" to the INPT as its new symbol.

INPT has been a long-standing poll partner of the Congress in Tripura. The party's support base was severely affected after the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) raised the demand of a separate state for the indigenous communities in 2009.