Tripura is only the second state after West Bengal to have seen long-running Left Front dominance. The state has been witness to almost unbroken rule by the Left over the last 30 years — except for one term in between from 1988 to 1993 when the Congress formed government in alliance with the Tripura Upajati Juba Samity (TUJS) — ever since it came to power in the state in 1977. If the CPM registers yet another victory in the assembly elections on February 23, it would be its fourth successive victory in the state.

This is not a small achievement for any government in our times. In the last couple of decades, Gujarat and Bihar have been exceptions to this rule. While the Narendra Modi-led BJP managed to win its third successive election last year in Gujarat, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal registered three successive victories in Bihar in 1990, 1995 and 2000 before losing in 2005. It is only the CPM-led West Bengal and the Left Front government in Tripura that has managed to defy what is popularly termed as the ‘anti-incumbency’ factor, said to inevitably come into play against the ruling party.

The Congress party dominated the politics of the state for the first couple of elections, after the state came into being in 1967. During the first assembly election in 1967, the Congress won 27 of the 30 assembly seats in the House while the CPM and CPI won two and one seats respectively. Though the Congress managed to hold on to power in the next assembly elections held in 1972, the decline of the ruling party had begun. In that election, the Congress managed to win 41 of the 60 assembly seats; the CPM won 16.

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