Political activity is heating up in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura, three northeastern states whose election schedules were announced on Wednesday.
Massive political rallies and last-minute attempts to craft election manifestos have come to the fore in a poll due next month.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has landed to address a mega rally in the quiet Garo Hills, allied with a small tribal party to rule neighboring Tripura, part of a Konrad Samma-led coalition. He launched a ferocious attack on the BJP. He ruled over Meghalaya.
In Nagaland, hectic negotiations are underway to force Naga civil society to abandon its demands to suspend voting until the Naga peace talks are completed.
The EC decided on 16 February as the election date for Tripura Legislature and 27 February as election date for Nagaland and Meghalaya legislatures, with the counting of votes scheduled for 2 March.
The BJP is doing everything in its power to stay in power in Tripura, which had a change of leadership last May. Another he aims to expand his footprint in two states. Congress and the Left are trying to regain lost influence in Tripura.
Central BJP leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah recently visited states where polls matter.
Tripura has a BJP-IPFT allied government, but the National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) has the largest number of MLAs in Nagaland among all party governments. The National People’s Party (NPP), the only political party in the northeast with the National Party’s endorsement, heads the government of Meghalaya.
Specialist Manik Saha was appointed Chief Minister of Tripura last May following the abrupt resignation of then-CM Biprab Deb.
The BJP and the Tripura Indigenous Front (IPFT) joined forces in the 2018 parliamentary elections to wrest power from the CPI(M)-led Left Front.
The current strength of the House is 53. BJP has 33 his MLA, IPFT-4, CPI(M)-15, Congress-1.
The CPI(M) and parliament have announced that they will fight together in Tripura parliamentary elections, but Trinamor parliament and Tipura Mosa have so far not announced an alliance with any other party.
In a January 13 open letter, Tipra Motha chief Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma appealed to BJP ally IPFT to merge the two tribal-based parties.
However, BJP General Secretary Papia Dutta said the Saffron Party will contest the IPFT in parliamentary elections.
State president of the Trinamool Congress, Pijush Kanti Biswas, said Wednesday that the party was ready for elections “in full force” and that negotiations were underway to partner with “the right parties”.
The current strength of the Meghalaya Legislature is 42, mainly due to the resignation of the MLA before the election.
NPP President Konrad Sangma is the chief minister of the state, and the TMC became the largest opposition party following the defection of former CM Mukul Sangma and several other members of parliament.
At her rally in Meghalaya, Trinamur parliamentary chief executive Mamata Banerjee said: It says something during the election and then does something else. Her BJP government in the center only funds states controlled by the Saffron Party. BJP President Ernest Morey said, “I’m not in favor of pre-election alliances. We’ll fight ourselves and get 10 to 15 seats comfortably,” he said.
The current strength of Nagaland parliament is 59 and NDPP has 41 MLA and 12 BJP. NDPP-BJP is the only pre-election alliance ever declared.
Asked what would happen if civil society organizations insisted on not participating in public opinion polls unless there was a solution to the lingering Naga political problems, Prime Minister Neifiu Rio said Tuesday: “We cannot allow a constitutional crisis. Rather, it is a question of law and order.Those with right minds should pursue this issue according to the rules.”
Nagaland parliamentary speaker K Therie said that “announcing the election dates has betrayed the aspirations of the people” as Nagaland’s political issues have yet to be resolved.
(This article is not edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)