The women’s wing of the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura has decided to nominate women candidates in all 20 constituencies reserved for Scheduled Tribes in the state to protest against its parent body’s move to field only male nominees.

The BJP and IPFT have forged an alliance for elections to the 60-member House in Tripura to be held on February 18.

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According to the terms of the alliance, the IPFT would contest nine seats reserved for tribals and the BJP would field candidates in the remaining 51 seats.

“As an ally of the BJP, the IPFT is fielding nine candidates and we had sought only one seat for a woman candidate. When party president N C Debbarma turned down our request, we took this decision,” Indigenous Womens Front of Tripura (IWFT) president Sandhyarani Debbarma told reporters.

When contacted, Mewar Jamatiya, the IPFT general secretary said, the party has fielded candidates who have winning prospects.

The decision to field women candidates was taken by three “belligerent leaders” of the women’s wing and they have been requested to review their decision, the IPFT general secretary said.

A meeting of the 90-member Executive Committee would be held today and the body would take a decision about three women leaders if they did not reconsider their decision, Jamatiya said.