In 2021, Tripura’s politics saw an unexpected twist at the Autonomous District Council (ADC) elections, when the newly launched, tribal-based party, the TIPRA Motha, won 18 seats, humbling the ruling BJP-Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) alliance in the hills areas that managed to win only nine. The person behind the twist was the scion of the royal family, 44-year-old Pradyot Bikram Kishore ‘Manikya’ Deb Barma, better known as Pradyot Manikya, or ‘Bubagra’ by the people. In 2019, he resigned as the state Congress president to form the extra-political Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA). In February 2021, barely two months before the TTADC election, TIPRA was transformed into a political outfit—the TIPRA Motha party. Sticking to their demand for a Greater Tipraland, TIPRA Motha has decided to go solo in the upcoming Assembly elections, contesting 42 out of 60 seats in the Tripura state assembly. After a hectic day of campaigning, Pradyot Manikya speaks to Outlook’s Snigdhendu Bhattacharya at the royal Ujjayanta Palace.