July 25: Around 20 leaders of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad today announced the launch of a party on a day the tribal outfit suspended two of them.

Raju Bara, the Parishad’s organising secretary in the Dooars, and Kirankumar Kalindi, a senior leader, were suspended indefinitely by the outfit’s state leadership for “indiscipline”. Raju had incurred the wrath of the Parishad by writing to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha last month and offering talks. The Parishad wants Sixth Schedule status for the Terai and the Dooars.

Raju, however, was careful not to openly confront the tribal outfit and said the formation of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) did not mean that the Parishad had split.

“The Parishad is to the PPP what the RSS and the VHP are to the BJP.”

Joy Tirkey, a PPP general secretary, said: “The Parishad is an NGO that works for the betterment of the Adivasis while the PPP is a political party. We will contest all the seats in the Dooars and the Terai in the 2011 Assembly elections,” Raju said.

Raju has been nominated as one of the PPP’s four general secretaries while Kalindi has become the central committee president.

The party’s central committee was formed on June 5, Tirkey said. The party sent a letter to the Election Commission on July 14, seeking recognition.