New Delhi, March 2
The Bharatiya Janata Party and allies crossed the halfway mark of 31 in 60-member Tripura and Nagaland Assemblies on Thursday and were set to retain governments in both states, while Meghalaya headed for a hung Assembly amid clear signs of a post-poll alliance between the National People’s Party (NPP), the state’s single largest outfit, BJP and United Democratic Party (UDP).
The NPP, UDP and BJP were partners in the outgoing ruling coalition of Meghalaya, which also has a 60-member House. The three had contested separately in 2018, as this year. Twin victories come as a booster for the BJP ahead of elections in Karnataka, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, MP and Telangana this year and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, especially in light of a failed Left and Congress pre-poll coalition experiment to halt the saffron party in Tripura. This was an unprecedented pact, considering Congress and Left are rivals in Kerala.
Today’s wins also signal a further consolidation of saffron forces in the North-East, where the BJP came to power for the first time in Assam in 2016, before going on to form governments in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura, and becoming part of the ruling combines in Meghalaya and Nagaland in 2018.
The Election Commission results showed the BJP and Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura’s (IPFT’s) pre-poll alliance clocking 33 seats (BJP-32 and IPFT-1), down 10 seats since 2018; the Left and Congress alliance trailing at 14 (down two since 2018) and a four-year-old Tipra Motha Party (TMP), founded by erstwhile royal Pradyot Debbarma, winning 13 seats. The TMP had fielded 42 candidates. In Nagaland, outgoing ruling partners NDPP and BJP, which contested 40 and 20 seats, respectively, won 37 seats (NDPP-25 and BJP-12), relegating state’s former Opposition outfit NPF to two seats, as against 26 in 2018. The entire NPF leadership had in 2022 shifted to the NDPP, rendering the state virtually Opposition-less.
Meghalaya is the only state in the North-East where the BJP looked shaky, winning only two seats, same as in 2018. Outgoing Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma-led NPP bagged 26 seats, emerging as the single largest party, while the UDP won 11. The NPP, UDP and BJP had in 2018 stitched a post-poll alliance to form the government despite the Congress being the single largest party with 21 MLAs.
Chairman of BJP’s North-East Democratic Alliance Himanta Biswa Sarma has already hinted at parleys with the NPP for government formation in Meghalaya with even Conrad’s aides today saying a bigger mandate for the party reflected the voters’ urge to consolidate better with former partners. Meghalaya BJP president Ernest Mawrie later said the party would submit a letter of support to the NPP on Thursday night to form the next government in the state.
Newcomer Trinamool Congress (TMC) won five seats and so did the Congress in Meghalaya.
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