oppn parties Congress' Downfall In North-East Continues Unabated

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court releases Neeraj Singhal, promoter of Bhushan Steel, on bailas the ED had not shared the ground of his arrest with him. The court said that the accused has to be released if the arrest is not as per statutory procedure
  • N Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons, took home Rs 135cr in FY24
  • Carnage at Dalal Street: Sensex plunges 1017 points to 81184 and Nifty 283 points to 24852
  • Neeraj Chopra qualifies for Diamond League finale in Brussels
  • Rahul Dravid joins Rajasthan Royals as head coach on a mutli-year contract
  • After Harvinder Singh in archery, Praveen Kumar wins gold in high jump at Paris Paralympic
  • Paris Paralympic: Shuttlers assure medals as Nitesh Kumar and Suhas Yahtiraj enter finals of their events and Manisha Ramadass enters semifinals
  • 47 Indians trapped in cyber scam centres in Laos have been rescued by the Indian embassy in the country
  • Gujarat toll now 47 as no respite in sight from the torrential rainfall lashing the state
  • IMD says that there will above-normal rainfall in September and floods and landslides are likely in North India
  • BJP leader T Michael Haopkip's house set on fire by a violent mob in Churachandrapur district
  • Cow vigilantes lynch a labourer from Bengal in Haryana's Charkhi Dadri district on suspicion of eating beef
  • Veteran actor in the Malayalam film industry, Mohanlal, said that the entire industry is answerable for the issues raised in the Hema committee report
  • DGCA to probe fire in engine episode of the Indigo flight from Kolkata to Bengaluru
  • Election Commission defers Haryana polls to October 5, counting on October 8
West Bengal governor refers the Aparajita (Rape) Bill to the President
oppn parties
Congress' Downfall In North-East Continues Unabated

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2023-02-28 03:02:41

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

The Congress rout continues in the North-East. The exit polls for the three North-Eastern states predict that while the party is likely to get between 3-6 seats in Meghalaya (down from the 20 it got in 2018), it is unlikely to open its account in both Tripura (where it is in alliance with the Left) and Nagaland. This despite the fact that even 10 years ago, the party was, either alone or in alliance with regional parties, in power in most of the states in the region.

As the BJP has focussed on the North-East ever since it came to power in 2014, the Congress has given the impression that it has lost interest. In state after state, starting with Assam, the Congress has inexplicably yielded space to the BJP and its regional allies while it has chosen not to stop defections and otherwise not paid enough attention to the problems of party leaders from the region.

Is it because the region does not add much weight in Parliament? Is it because the Congress thinks that the BJP must be fought in the Hindi heartland and stopped from spreading its tentacles in the south? But that is a huge mistake the party has made. It had tall leaders in the North-East. The late P A Sangma was expelled in 1999 and Himanta Biswa Sarma left in 2014. Other leaders in smaller states left to start their own regional parties. The high command could do nothing to stop the slide.

As things stand now, the BJPs war cry of Congress-mukt India is likely to begin from the North-East. If it does not take corrective action, in a few years from now the Congress is going to be wiped out in the region. The party has announced the second part of Bharat Jodo Yatra from Arunachal Pradesh. It should treat that as an opportunity to rebuild the bridges with the people in the region.