The manifesto of the ruling BJP for the February 16 Tripura Assembly elections has left a group of 10,323 retrenched school teachers “devastated”.

The three-page Sankalp Patra or manifesto released by BJP national president J.P. Nadda in Agartala on Thursday, which has listed the state government’s “achievements” over the past five years and its sankalpa (commitments) for the next five years, has no mention about the affected government school teachers who have been “jobless since March 2020”.

This section of teachers had played a significant role in the BJP-IPFT combine unseating the Left Front government in 2018. All key players in the poll fray, including the Left Front-Congress combine, Trinamul Congress and Tipra Motha, are wooing these affected teachers.

“There is not even a single line about us. We have been totally ignored by the ruling dispensation despite them committing to resolving our issue in their 2018 vision document. We are devastated,” A. Sarma, a representative of the teachers, told The Telegraph.

Before the 2018 Assembly election, the ruling BJP had promised to resolve the problem of the teachers who lost their jobs in 2017 after the Supreme Court upheld a 2014 Tripura High Court ruling that the recruitment was faulty. The teachers were on an extension but that too ended in March 2020. They have since been protesting regularly seeking re-employment.

Sharing a screenshot of the “relevant” page of the 2018 vision document of the ruling BJP, Sarma said: “Commitment No. 12 on Page 6 of the 27- page BJP vision document had stated ‘The government will resolve the problem of 10,323 teachers keeping humanitarian consideration in mind’. But nothing came of that promise in five years despite our repeated appeals and protests. In the interim, we lost 150 of our colleagues.”

Sarma added: “We were expecting at least a line, at least on the committee the government had set up on January 11, just before the announcement of the poll dates, to look into our issue and submit its report by March. It is really a matter of regret... very unfortunate, heart-breaking. We will meet and decide what to do.”

The teachers’ issue has been flagged by other parties. The Left Front in its manifesto has promised to provide government jobs to the retrenched teachers if it is voted to power. It has also promised financial assistance to the next of kin of the teachers who had died in the interim.

Another teachers’ representative had said after the release of the Left Front manifesto that around 8,500 “terminated” teachers were still jobless. “The remaining teachers have either found employment or have retired. We are jobless since 2020,” she had said.

The Congress, which has a seat-sharing arrangement with the Left Front, has promised to work out a “practical solution” for the affected teachers.

The Trinamul Congress has committed financial aid to the 10,323 retrenched teachers.

The BJP manifesto has promised welfare schemes, freebies and infrastructure development while vowing maximum autonomy to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC). Twenty of the 60 Assembly seats are reserved for tribal candidates.

The BJP has offered to restructure the TTAADC to provide it with additional legislative, executive, administrative, and financial powers within the framework of the proposed 125th Constitution Amendment Bill dealing with Sixth Schedule areas. The saffron party has also vowed annual financial assistance of Rs 5,000 to Scheduled Tribe families.

With Tipra Motha making Greater Tipraland state its key poll plank, all parties have promised maximum autonomy to the TTAADC.

The focus of the manifesto is on the overall development of the state by “catering” to the aspirations of all sections of society, the BJP said.