Northeast Polls Results 2018: Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya voted in February.
Agartala/Kohima/Shillong: The BJP has ended the two-decade run of the CPM's Manik Sarkar as Tripura chief minister. The party and its new regional partner Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party have also pulled ahead in Nagaland and will form government if they hold on to current leads. In Meghalaya, the ruling Congress is leading but could fall short of a majority and is scrambling to try and ensure that the BJP does not manage to gather regional allies for a post-poll alliance to form government. Counting of votes began at 8 this morning for assembly elections in the three Northeastern states.
Here is your 10-point guide to the Northeast election results 2018:
- The BJP, along with its regional ally the IPFT, is now leading in 41 seats in Tripura. The party on its own is leading in 34 seats. The Left is ahead in 18. Tripura has 60 assembly seats and a party needs 31 to win a majority.
- "It is a historic verdict," said senior BJP leader Ram Madhav, who is in charge of the northeast, also adding, "We will wait for final results but we believe we will form government with 40 plus seats." He credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah for the big win.
- The BJP leader said the party's highest decision making body, the parliamentary board, will meet this evening to discuss "further course of action." State leader Biplab Kumar Deb is widely expected to be the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in Tripura.
- Mr Madhav, who was speaking to reporters in Tripura, said he and the BJP's northeast strategist Himanta Biswa Sarma are headed to Meghalaya, where the Congress is well ahead leading in 21 seats, but still ten short of the halfway mark at 31. Ram Madhav predicted no party would get a majority, saying, "We will see how we can form a non-Congress government there."
- The BJP and its regional allies from the state like the National People's Party (NPP) and the United Democratic Party are contesting separately. They could quickly announce a post-poll alliance in the case of a hung house as was seen last year in the Manipur elections and the Congress has airlifted top leaders from Delhi to begin negotiations in capital Shillong with smaller parties and independents.
- Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said about Meghalaya, "The game they played in Manipur and Goa, people saw that. They kidnapped MLAs. This time we will not let them do that. We won't let the BJP break our party."
- In Nagaland, the BJP and its regional partner NDPP, led by former chief minister Neiphiu Rio have pulled ahead of the ruling Naga People's Front (NPF). BJP-NDPP are leading in 31 seats and the NPF of Chief Minister TR Zeliang in 24. In Nagaland too a party needs 31 seats to form government.
- Neiphiu Rio has been elected unopposed from his seat Northern Angami II as his rival withdrew his nomination. The BJP had pulled out of an alliance with the NPF ahead of the elections and chose to ally with Mr Rio's new party.
- Today's results further consolidate the BJP's 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.
- It was a crucial election for the CPM, which has been in power in Tripura for the last 25 years, 20 under Manik Sarkar, famous as the country's "poorest chief minister." It is now in power only in Kerala after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ended its three-decade rule in West Bengal seven years ago.
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