In 3 NE states BJP share is high ahead of vote counting
NEW DELHI: The stakes are high for the BJP ahead of Thursday’s counting of votes for the three state assembly elections as the results will give an indication of whether it has deepened its roots in Tripura, which That in 2018 the party’s left stronghold was captured, and it made further inroads. Meghalaya and Nagaland or the opposition has been able to reduce its influence.
Of the three states, it is Tripura that promises to have more national resonance than the other two states as arch-rivals Congress and the Left join hands to challenge the BJP for the first time in the state’s 60-member assembly elections. .
In this battle between national parties, it is the Pradyot Debbarma-led TIPRA Motha that has emerged as an X-factor as its founder, a former royal family, upsets traditional calculations among a large section of the tribal population. Given, moreover, that the BJP and its ally the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) had performed well in the tribal region in 2018.
BJP had won 36 seats and IPFT eight last time. With the demise of the IPFT following the death of its founder N C Debbarma, the burden of providing a majority rests largely on the shoulders of the BJP while its two main rivals have united.
The BJP’s spectacular rise after failing to win a single seat in 2013, ending a two-decade Left stronghold and failing to win a majority on its own five years later, has been attributed to the party’s ideological victory over its rivals. was presented as, and loss will be observed. A setback despite Tripura’s relatively modest influence on national politics.
While regional parties remain major players in both Meghalaya and Nagaland, the BJP has campaigned aggressively with its bigwigs, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, to expand its footprint in the states.
For the first time, the BJP has contested all 60 seats in Meghalaya and has consistently targeted National People’s Party leader and Chief Minister Conrad Sangma for running the “most corrupt” state government in the country.
The BJP was a partner in the state government but broke ties before the elections. The party hopes that if this decision throws a hung assembly like last time, it will increase its strength in the assembly to emerge as a more powerful player.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BJP’s point man for the northeastern region, met Sangma after the election, signaling that the two parties could again do business together.
An interesting aspect of these elections is that the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has pushed hard to present itself as a strong challenger to the BJP in the polls, so that The next countdown ends. Lok Sabha elections are starting in 2024.
The Congress has also campaigned heavily, with Rahul Gandhi holding a rally in Meghalaya, in an attempt to regain lost influence in states it once dominated.
In Nagaland, which had the unique feature of having no opposition in the 60-member assembly as all parties supported the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party-led government, the BJP again won the election in alliance with the NDPP.
Sarma has claimed that there will be no hung assemblies in Tripura, Nagaland or Meghalaya, as predicted in some exit polls, and that the BJP-led NDA will rule with absolute majorities in all three northeastern states.
