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India: BJP dominates polls in northeastern states

Party retains power in Tripura and Nagaland, set to join government in Meghalaya

India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dominated the elections in the North East on Thursday, coming to power in all three states that had gone to the polls.

While the party won handsomely in Tripura and Nagaland, it looked set to form government in Meghalaya, renewing its alliance with Conrad Sangma of the National People’s Party.

In Tripura, the BJP returned to power in the state by winning an absolute majority.

According to the Election Commission of India, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 32 seats with a vote share of around 39 per cent. Tipra Motha Party came second by winning 13 seats. Communist Party of India (Marxist) got 11 seats while Congress bagged three seats. The Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) managed to open its account by winning one seat.

In Meghalaya, the National People’s Party (NPP) coming out as the single largest party with 26 seats, as no party was able to touch the majority mark (31 seats) on its own. The former ally of NPP, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 2 seats. The Trinamool Congress, which is the principal Opposition in the state, won 5 seats.

The ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party-Bharatiya Janata Party has retained power in the Nagaland election, with the two parties having secured 37 seats in the 60-member assembly. Nagaland political stalwart and its longest-serving chief minister Neiphiu Rio is set to assume the office for a fifth consecutive term after the convincing win.

“These results are not to our satisfaction. Absolutely we should have won Tripura, we need to go to the electorate with new vigour. We need to work harder, But let’s not extrapolate the results in the northeast to what would happen in national politics,” Congress leader Supriya Shrinate was quoted by Indian broadcaster NDTV as saying.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the BJP’s win in the elections is a vote for progress and stability. “After seven decades of independence, many villages of the northeast didn’t have electricity. Previous govts knew that it was a difficult task to electrify those villages, and therefore they turned a blind eye towards them,” Modi said during his victory speech at BJP headquarters in Delhi.

The elections come at a crucial time for India’s polity, with barely a year to go for federal parliamentary elections. With the BJP consolidating its power across the states, the fractured opposition parties are yet to come up with any form of unity to pose a challenge to the BJP at the national level.