northeast challenge

Election Commission has announced the schedule of elections in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. Tripura will vote on February 16, the other two states will vote on February 27, and the results of all three are due on March 2. India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), fresh from a landslide victory in Gujarat, following its defeat to the Congress party in Himachal Pradesh, has made it clear that it will win all nine state elections due this year. aims at. Before Narendra Modi came to power as prime minister with an absolute BJP majority in the Lok Sabha, India’s northeastern states were mostly seen as beyond party influence. But it won Tripura on its own in 2018, and is part of the ruling coalition in the other two slated for polling. The development of the region has been on its policy agenda and winning these states has been crucial to its launch as an all-India party. There have been separatist movements in the region, which is also a reason for special attention. In this context, as some local analysts argue, the BJP is displacing the Congress there as the choice of people favoring closer ties with New Delhi. But this in itself is not a guarantee of victory.