Modi juggernaut stumbles in North-East too

After suffering jolts in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the BJP-led NDA was in for a shock in the North-Eastern states of India too. It suffered setbacks, losing seats to the Congress and regional parties in the North-East.

In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had pocketed 14 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in three states on its own, while its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies had bagged five. Together, their tally stood at 19.

There are only 25 Lok Sabha seats in the North Eastern states of India comprising Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, and Sikkim.

In BJP ruled Assam, the grand old party increased its tally by three seats (Dhubri, Nagaon and Jorhat).

In a humiliation to the ruling BJP in Manipur, Congress won both seats in the troubled state (Outer Manipur and Inner Manipur). Inner Manipur seat Congress candidate Bimol Akoijam wrested the seat from the ruling BJP by an impressive margin.

The Outer Manipur seat slipped away from the NDA ally, Naga People’s Front (NPF). Congress’s firebrand candidate Alfred Arthur claimed the seat by over 65,000 votes. The return of the Congress in Manipur is an important shift in the region.

BJP chief minister Biren Singh’s biased and callous handling of the violence torn state, and state sponsored ethnic hatred against ethnic minorities, resulted in the huge loss for the saffron party.

The saving grace for the saffron party has been Arunachal Pradesh where it had a landslide victory in the Assembly polls and also bagged both Lok Sabha seats. The grand old party also won the Tura seat in Meghalaya, considered the bastion of the NPP.

Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s sister and sitting MP Agatha Sangma lost to the Congress candidate Saleng Sangma by over 1 lakh votes. National People’s Party (NPP) and Nationalist Democratic People’s Party (NDPP) are in power in Meghalaya and Nagaland, respectively, in alliance with the BJP.

And yet, the NPP failed to retain its Tura seat, while its candidate and minister in the government, Ampareen Lyngdoh, lost the Shillong Lok Sabha seat to another regional entity, Voice of the People Party (VPP).

In Nagaland, too, the ruling NDPP failed to retain the lone Nagaland Lok Sabha seat. The seat went to the Congress for the first time since 1999, making S.S. Jamir the giant slayer.

The elections also left the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in Assam without any Lok Sabha seat for the first time since 2009. The party lost both seats it had won in 2019. The AIUDF’s failure to win any seat, even in the Muslim majority seats of Assam, indicates that the minority votes have consolidated in favour of the Congress in the state.

Sikkim held on to its tradition of rejecting national parties The lotus failed to bloom in Sikkim, where the BJP dumped its 2019 alliance partner the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha and contested on its own in 31 seats in the Assembly elections and the lone Lok Sabha seat, losing security deposits in all.

In Tripura, as expected, the BJP bagged both seats, one thanks to its understanding with a local tribal outfit, TIPRA Motha.

The BJP was jolted in Christian dominated Mizoram too, where the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) bagged the lone Lok Sabha seat. The North-East no longer looks lke a saffron stronghold considering the reverses in this election.