Bru migrants cast votes first for Lok Sabha poll after resettlement in Tripura

Agartala: Tripura-settled Bru migrants on Friday cast their mandates in the northeastern state for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls for the first time after they were permanently resettled following a quadripartite agreement between the central government, state governments of Tripura and Mizoram and Bru migrants in 2020. 
The refugees had fled violence in their native Mizoram 27 years ago. They had previously participated in the 2023 Assembly elections in Tripura. In the previous three Lok Sabha polls (2009, 2014 and 2019), the Bru migrants voted as voters of Mizoram.
Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Coordination Committee (MBDPCC) general secretary Laldingliana said the majority of Brus voted since morning in a peaceful environment. 
They had cast votes at their nearest polling stations at all locations, including a new booth set up at Laungang in the South district where Bru migrants were settled as per the agreement. 
Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) general secretary Bruno Msha said, “We are casting our votes for the Lok Sabha polls in Tripura for the first time. We took part in three other Lok Sabha elections while we stayed in Tripura before but we never cast votes in any of those elections in Tripura”.
Earlier in the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Bru migrants had cast their votes at facilitation centres at their transit camps through ballot papers.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, special polling centres were set up for them at Kahnmun in Mizoram’s Mamit district, adjacent to the Tripura-Mizoram inter-state boundary.
Over 32,000 Bru migrants, also called the Reang, fled Mizoram to the bordering state of Tripura nearly in the wake of ethnic clashes with the majority Mizo tribe and came to Tripura in 1997.
After two decades on 3 July 2018, a quadripartite agreement was signed between the government of India, the government of Mizoram and Tripura and the Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) for the repatriation of 5,407 Bru families comprising 32,876 persons residing in temporary camps in Tripura, aiming to resettle refugees in Mizoram.
The migrants were sheltered in six relief camps in the North Tripura district. In 2020, a renewed agreement was signed for the proposed permanent resettling of the Brus in Tripura. As per the agreement, a Rs.661 crore package was given for their resettlement at 15 locations in six districts of Tripura. The pact also promised to include the displaced refugees in the electoral rolls in Tripura.