Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, whose NPP (National People’s Party) may end up as the single largest party in the assembly elections held today, indicated that his alliance with the BJP may soon be back.
Sangma said, “If we get even a fraction of the mandate, we will have to talk to parties to form the government… If a party can give a voice to the Northeast at the national level, we are working in that direction.” Are.” Four exit polls indicated that the NPP could win 20 out of 60 seats in Meghalaya. This will leave the chief minister’s party well short of the majority mark of 31 in the 60-member assembly.
The BJP, which won only two seats in the state in 2018, will slightly expand its tally by winning six seats. According to exit polls, Congress can win six seats and Trinamool Congress can open its account with 11 seats.
While exit polls often turn out to be wrong, if they turn out to be correct, even an alliance with the BJP may not give Mr. Sangma the numbers. In such a situation, Mamta Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress can become the kingmaker.
Back in 2017, the BJP worked on a series of alliances in the Northeast with the formation of the NEDA or the North East Democratic Alliance as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Act East” policy.
Where the NEDA politically brought together a range of social and ethnic groups, it brought the BJP into its grasp all seven states with allies in every state. While the party got its second term in Assam two years ago, it forged alliances with local forces to be part of the government in other states.
In Meghalaya, the BJP won only two seats in 2018 but managed to form the government with the NPP. This time, the two parties fought the election separately following differences over corruption allegations against Mr. Sangma’s party.
Sangma said today, “When I took over the reins of the NPP after my father’s death, I made it clear that when we go to the polls, we should fight on our ideology. We have fought on ideology, pre-poll alliance No.”
“We have to realize that elections are different from government formation. The Northeast is divided among themselves and the numbers do not give us an adequate voice at the national level,” he said.