North-East states to test BJP flexibility, Congress tenacity

NEW DELHI/ GUWAHATI: Tripura will go to the polls on February 16 and Nagaland and Meghalaya will vote for a new government on February 27, the Election Commission of India announced on Wednesday. The counting of votes in three states is due March 2. The announcement marked the official start of the first round of Assembly polls in the New Year. Nine states, including Karnataka, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan, will go to polls this year, which are crucial in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections next year.

The BJP is on a sticky wicket in Tripura due to infighting. It has fielded popular Bengali actor Mithun Chakraborty to mobilise party workers. The saffron outfit wrested power from the Left Front since 2018, which culminated in the uninterrupted 25-year rule of the CPM.

The Congress and the Left are trying to regain the ground by stitching up an alliance. However, Tiprasa Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) holds the key as it has increased its footprints in the tribal areas of the state. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is also determined to prove its clout outside West Bengal. In Nagaland, an influential tribal organisation, demanding the creation of a “Frontier Nagaland” state, has threatened to “permanently expel” those who will file nominations to contest the February 27 polls from the Konyak soil.

The Konyak Union represents the tribesmen. It comes under the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO), the apex tribal body in eastern Nagaland which has six districts and 20 of the state’s 60 Assembly constituencies. In Meghalaya, Trinamool Congress is trying to emerge as an alternative. It had no base in the state but 12 Congress MLAs, led by former CM Mukul Sangma, jumped ship in November 2021, making the Mamata Banerjee-led party the state’s principal opposition overnight. The Congress, which had emerged as the single largest party in the past two elections, has now reduced to a shadow of its past. It is left with no MLA after a series of defections.