What prompted Bengali-majority Tripura to forgive BJP

AGARTALA: BJP conquered Assam two years ago over the issue of influx from Bangladesh. Considering this, many thought the saffron party would find it difficult to seek votes in Bengali-majority Tripura. Here, on the contrary, it managed to demolish the Left without faltering as Bengali Hindus, who had immigrated from the neighbouring country as refugees post the 1971 war and constitute the majority of the state's population, voted for it overwhelmingly.
Why Bengali-majority Tripura responded so positively? The answer is clear. The Left had anticipated the advantages BJP would get from the Centre's move to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955 and make illegal migrants eligible for citizenship on the basis of religion. It could be detrimental to Assam but it was music to the majority community in the tiny border state. For, most of the migrants from erstwhile East Bengal or Bangladesh are Hindus by religion.
Tripura had already witnessed a phenomenal demographic change from the influx of Hindu Bengali refugees from Bangladesh after the Partition and Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. This had transformed the indigenous tribals from the majority community to a minority. As per 2011 census, the tribals constitute about 30% of the population while the non-tribal Bengali Hindus are about 66%. BJP knew well that without the 20 of the 60 seats reserved for the tribals, it would be impossible to snatch Tripura from the Left and it would not want to antagonize them. To expand its base, it tied up with the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura, which has been fighting for a separate tribal state.
During campaigning, Himanta Biswa Sarma almost toppled BJP's grand hopes when he kicked off a row about Manik Sarkar being forced to go back to Bangladesh after the polls. On counting day Saturday, after BJP emerged victorious, Sarma repeated his words but he was more subtle this time. He suggested that Sarkar could choose to go to either West Bengal, Kerala or Bangladesh.
In Assam, the refugee influx was the principal poll plank that not only gave BJP its first victory in the assembly polls in 2016 but also led to its sweeping win in the Lok Sabha polls in 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's slogan of driving out every single illegal Bangladeshi migrant from the country, drove voters to opt for BJP. The same formula was repackaged and used successfully two years later.
"We were telling them (tribals) that much of the amendment will be of little relevance in Tripura. We have been asking them to vote out the Left Front government in a united manner," a senior BJP functionary said. The Left side of the view was that this amendment would not much impact the population, but BJP would use it to divide the electorate on ethnic lines.