Ahead of the coming Assembly elections, the poll season in the Northeast is heating up, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah dropping in for a visit to Tripura and Nagaland this week. Along with Meghalaya, the two states are scheduled to hold elections next month. The high-profile visits, following soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tour of Tripura and Meghalaya last month, signals the BJP’s early push in a region where it now is part of the ruling coalition in most states, in some form or another. In Tripura, Shah flagged off the BJP campaign with a rath yatra, its first for the state, to highlight its government's achievements, after dislodging the CPI(M) from power after five years. Shah used his speech to make a special mention of the contribution of the Manikya royal dynasty to Tripura – an obvious gesture directed at royal scion Praydut Roy Barman Debbarma, whose TIPRA Motha is among the ruling alliance's growing worries. The tribal party is rising from strength to strength at a time when the BJP's tribal ally, IPFT, is beset with problems. The BJP is also fighting fissures at home, having replaced its sitting Chief Minister Biplab Deb overnight with a low-profile Manik Saha, who is having problems pulling his weight. Now, the BJP is facing the prospect of rivals Left and Congress coming together to fight it jointly, which will be a big blow to the party. In Meghalaya, where the BJP is in a ruling coalition with the National People’s Party (NPP), the ties between them are strained. The impression that the BJP is anti-Christian has been hard to shrug off, with misgivings of the community further strengthened after the surfacing of a letter by the Assam Police Special Branch, seeking information from local police stations in BJP-ruled Assam on religious conversions and the number of churches in the state. As the Opposition went to town with the letter, citing it as proof of the BJP’s “anti-Christian” sentiments, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma – the party's Northeast face - issued a statement distancing himself from the move. The most vocal Opposition party against the BJP in the state is the Trinamool Congress (TMC), a new entrant to the Meghalaya arena. It has a popular leader in the form of former CM and ex-Congress leader Mukul Sangma, who can help the party, especially in his home turf of Garo Hills, which sends as many as 24 MLAs to the 60-member Assembly. The TMC, however, is beleaguered by its own image problem. Many in the state see it as a “Bengali” party, a tag with severe implications in a region long roiled by anti-outsider – specifically anti-Bangladeshi – agitations. In December, West Bengal CM and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee visited Meghalaya – her first since the party became a force to reckon with in the state. The party is expected to release its list of candidates later this week. The TMC's rise has been at the cost of the Congress which, once a formidable force in the state, will face polls in Meghalaya this time with zero sitting MLAs. All its 17 MLAs have deserted it, with the last five joining the NPP last year and two more former leaders set to join another regional party, the United Democratic Party. Part of the government despite having only two MLAs, the BJP is lately enjoying a boost, with four prominent MLAs joining it in the last month or so. Nagaland, the other state headed for polls next month in the Northeast, will again see an election in the shadow of the long-awaited final settlement to the Naga political question. It was in hope of this that all parties here had joined hands in 2021 to form an Opposition-less government – the United Democratic Alliance. However, the Naga People’s Front (NPF), which once ruled the state, has announced that it will be contesting the election alone and against the BJP-National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), headed by the veteran Neiphiu Rio. Like in 2018, both parties have announced a pre-poll alliance, with the BJP set to contest 20 seats and the NDPP the remaining 40. Before the poll season begins, the ruling government has been served an ultimatum by the Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation (ENPO), representing the six remote and backward eastern districts of Tuensang, Mon, Longleng, Kiphire, Noklak and Shamator. They have threatened to boycott the elections unless their demand for a separate state called Frontier Nagaland is met. The Nagaland Cabinet earlier this week appealed to the ENPO to reconsider their demand, but the outfit remains steadfast. The ENPO representatives met with Union Home Ministry officials in Guwahati on Thursday. During his visit to Nagaland, Shah too is expected to hold talks with the ENPO. Meanwhile, news agency PTI reported that the Centre Thursday sanctioned Rs 12,882 crore – under the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) – for continuation of development schemes in the region. The funds were greenlit following a Cabinet meeting chaired by PM Narendra Modi. Minister for DoNER G Kishan Reddy said the development of the Northeast was a “major priority”for the Centre.
