Agartala, March 8: Political temperature appears to be rising across Tripura with crucial elections to the autonomous district council (ADC) barely two months away. Though the state election department has not announced the dates for the polls, it is likely to be held in two phases.

The president of regional Indigenous People's Front of Twipra (IPFT), Narendra Debbarma, today alleged that the CPM had unleashed terror on IPFT workers and leaders.

"The CPM knows that we have been able to mobilise indigenous people with our demand for a separate state and this time they are going to have a run for their money. This is the reason the ruling CPM has set police and their cadres upon our workers and supporters. They are being implicated in false cases and imprisoned while the CPM cadres continue their attacks," Debbarma said.

During an interaction with the media in the local IPFT office, he claimed that more than a thousand workers of the party have been booked under various sections of the IPC for their alleged involvement in fabricated cases and they are being indiscriminately arrested so that they cannot participate in campaigns.

"The spontaneous response we have received for our separate statehood demand has made their cadres nervous, but they are protected by the police and the administration," Debbarma alleged.

CPM leader H.P. Das firmly denied the charges raised by the IPFT president. He said out of seven elections held for the ADC since 1982, the Opposition parties could win only twice and on both occasions by using gun-toting militants and reducing the elections to a farce.

"The IPFT president is conveniently forgetting the facts that in elections held in 2005 and 2010 the CPM-led Left Front had won all 28 seats while the entire Opposition drew a blank. The indigenous people in Tripura know which party is their friend and which one is their foe and will vote accordingly in spite of the disinformation campaign," Das said.

He also dismissed IPFT's demand for a separate state as "totally unrealistic" and claimed that they do not enjoy the support of the indigenous people.

The Indigenous National Party of Twipra (INPT), another regional party, is yet to hit the campaign trail.

The INPT leadership had parted company with the Congress - their longstanding partner in an electoral alliance - and is eager to forge an understanding with the BJP at the state and central levels.

But the alliance has not yet materialised and the BJP is carrying out a low-key campaign projecting royal scion Jishnu Debbarma as the face of the party.

"We have not taken any initiative on the alliance with the BJP. It is for them to decide and approach us and then a decision can be taken. We are prepared to contest the polls alone as we do not support the IPFT's unrealistic demand for a separate state. We, however, support further empowerment of the ADC," said general secretary of the INPT Jagadish Debbarma.

The beleaguered Congress in Tripura led by newly appointed PCC president Birajit Sinha has decided to contest the ADC polls alone. He has already given charge of leading the campaign to Pradyot Bikram Kishore Debbarman, a member of the royal family and newly appointed working president of the PCC.

Sinha said he was holding conventions of indigenous party workers and supporters at the grassroots and added that candidates would be finalised with recommendations of the Congress's indigenous front organisation.

"From now on we will try to build up our own base among the indigenous people," Sinha said.