Agartala, Nov. 13: Political parties have suddenly remembered the 32,465 Reang tribal refugees of Mizoram languishing in sub-human conditions in six camps in remote areas of North Tripura’s Kanchanpur subdivision for over 11 years.

Why? Because, elections to the Mizoram Assembly are fast approaching and no political party can possibly ignore so huge a vote bank.

Elections to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly are slated for December 2.

BJP president Rajnath Singh is scheduled to arrive in Kanchanpur on November 15, after addressing a rally at Aizawl. He will address a meeting of the refugees in the remote Gachhirampara refugee camp and appeal for votes.

The BJP’s Tripura observer, Darshan Singh, has been camping in Tripura, touring different camps of Kanchanpur subdivsion to ensure a decent turnout for the national president’s meeting.

“We are hoping for a minimum turnout of 25,000 because people will be coming from all over Kanchanpur,” said Darshan Singh.

He said the BJP president would also visit the interior of the camps to see the condition of the inmates and raise the issue of repatriation of the refugees to Mizoram at the national level.

Sources from Kanchanpur said the administration was gearing up for Rajnath Singh’s meeting at Gachhirampara.

“We are making appropriate security and crowd control arrangements so that the meeting passes off peacefully,” said Narayan Debbarma, sub-divisional officer, Kanchanpur. He said officially there are 32,465 registered refugees in the camps but there are 16,045 registered voters.

“Among the registered voters, only 7,000 have photo-affixed identity cards while the others do not have these though they are also eligible voters,” said Debbarma.

He added that leaders of all political parties, including the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) of Mizoram, have visited the camps and tried to influence the Reang voters who hold the key to the outcome of the five Assembly seats in southwestern Mizoram’s Mammith district.