As Gujarat, Himachal polls wrap up, election bandwagon moves northeast
The curtains have come down on assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. But the poll band wagon keeps rolling—moving this time to the country’s northeast.
Assembly polls are due in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura in February next year. Mizoram will also go to polls towards the end of 2018, most likely in November.
With a public rally in Shillong on Saturday, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a call to oust the Congress government in Meghalaya, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has got a head start on the others.
The saffron party heads governments in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, and is a minor partner in the Naga People’s Front (NPF)-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) in Nagaland. Anti-incumbency for the Mukul Sangma-led government in Meghalaya and a strong show by regional players could throw up a fractured verdict, giving BJP a chance to cobble a coalition in the 60-member assembly.
“We are part of NDA at Centre and the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) in the region. But for this election we have decided to go alone,” said Conrad Sangma, president of National People’s Party (NPP).
The party, which has a strong presence in Garo Hills, is already part of the BJP-led coalition in Manipur and a post-poll alliance between the two can’t be ruled out in Meghalaya.
While Congress is trying hard to keep its flock together, BJP, which was on the back foot after the turmoil caused by the Centre’s cattle slaughter rules, has managed to get its act together. Four sitting MLAS—2 Independents and one each from Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)—are expected to join the party soon. In Tripura, after 24 years in power, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will try and stave off a resurgent BJP.
It won’t be an easy task to break the CPI(M) bastion, but BJP and RSS leaders are making frequent trips to woo the Hindu population as well tribals.
In Nagaland, two rival NPF factions joining hands this month could give DAN another term. Last week, the Nagaland assembly unanimously passed a resolution requesting the Centre to postpone polls in the state till an “early solution to the protracted Naga political issue” is found.
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