Focus On North-East As Elections Approach In Three States
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2022-12-20 06:16:37
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Prime Minister Modi had prioritized the North-East quite early in his stint as prime minister. Although the electoral importance of the seven states in the North-East is negligible as they have just 24 Lok Sabha members between them and if the 14 from Assam are excluded, then the other six have just 10. Yet, the strategic importance is immense and since the Congress was strong in the region, it fit well with the BJP strategy of having a Congress-mukt Bharat to focus on the region. As of now, the party is either in power directly or in alliance in most of the states in the North-East.
Three states - Meghlaya, Tripura and Nagaland - are slated to have elections in February next year. Hence, Prime Minister Modi, with Home minister Amit Shah in tow, visited the region last weekend and laid the foundation stones for many projects. He also celebrated the golden jubilee of the North-East Council. In his speeches, Modi listed what his government had done for the North-East and how the government will do more in future. With this, the BJP has started the poll campaign and Modi is likely to visit many times in the next three months.
The reason for this is clear. The BJP is facing internal dissent in Tripura and the new political outfit, Tipra Motha, is also garnering huge public support. In other states, its alliances are not working well. In short - it is not going to be easy for the party this time. The party will have to renegotiate terms for ongoing alliances or even have to forge new alliances. In Nagaland, there are worries about the peace accord, in Meghalaya, all is not well with the alliance partners and the border dispute with the BJP-ruled Assam has also inflamed passions and in Tripura, the state unit is not united. It is going to be a tough battle in all three states.
