Northeast Polls Results 2018: Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya voted in February.
Agartala/Kohima/Shillong: The BJP and the ruling CPM are neck and neck in early rounds of counting of votes in Tripura; the BJP hopes to end the two-decade run of the Left party's Manik Sarkar as chief minister. Counting of votes began at 8 this morning for assembly elections in three Northeastern states - Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura. The BJP says it hopes to form government in all three, ousting the CPM from Tripura and the Congress from Meghalaya. In Nagaland, the BJP has partnered with former chief minister Neiphiu Rio's new party the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party.
Here is your 10-point guide to the Northeast election results 2018:
- The three states have 60 seats each and a party needs 31 to win a majority and form government. Votes are being counted for only 59 seats in Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland. Elections were cancelled in one seat in Meghalaya and Tripura because of the death of candidates.
- "If we win Tripura and if we can regain Nagaland, have a government in Meghalaya, then our expansion in Northeast will be complete, barring Mizoram. Today will be a big day," the BJP's Northeast strategist Himanta Biswa Sarma told NDTV ahead of the counting of votes.
- If it wins in the three states today, the BJP will further consolidate its position in the Northeast, recently bolstered by the party forming government in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. The seventh Northeast state, Mizoram, ruled by the Congress, will vote later this year.
- The CPM admits it has been stretched in a tough battle this time by the BJP, but has asserted that Manik Sarkar, famous as the country's "poorest chief minister," will win a fifth straight term in Tripura.
- It's a crucial election for the Left party which is now in power only in Tripura and Kerala after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ended its three-decade rule in West Bengal seven years ago.
- Also desperate not to let the number of states it holds dwindle further is the Congress, whose Mukul Sangma has struggled with dissidence in the run-up to the elections.
- The BJP and its regional allies from the state like the National People's Party (NPP) founded by former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma and the United Democratic Party are contesting separately. The NPP is seen as the Congress' toughest challenger.
- If Meghalaya votes in a hung assembly, as it has for all but one election, the BJP and its regional partners in the Northeast Democratic Alliance could quickly announce a post-poll alliance as was seen last year in the Manipur elections. The Congress was the single largest party in Manipur, but the BJP quickly stitched an alliance to form government.
- The Nagaland assembly election is seen as a battle between Chief Minister TR Zeliang of the NPF and his predecessor Neiphiu Rio, once his colleague but who has now launched his own party, the NDPP (Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party). The BJP, which was in power in Nagaland in alliance with the NPF, has now partnered with Mr Rio.
- Neiphiu Rio has been elected unopposed from his seat Northern Angami II after his rival withdrew his nomination.
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