This week, the ruling National People’s Party declared candidates for 58 seats for the upcoming polls to the 60-member Meghalaya Legislative Assembly. Chief Minister and party supremo Conrad Sangma will contest from the South Tura seat of Garo Hills. He is the sitting MLA from this seat. There are six women candidates too. Among the candidates are a few defectors from other parties.
The defectors include two Trinamool Congress MLAs Marthon Sangma (Mendipathar) and Jimmy Sangma (Tikrikilla). Both constituencies are part of the Garo Hills where the TMC is expecting to do well. Ampareen Lyngdoh, the former Congress leader and currently NPP’s spokesperson, will contest from the East Shillong seat.
Interestingly, NPP hasn’t announced candidates for two seats — Mairang and South Shillong. Mairang is currently represented by Metbah Lyngdoh, Meghalaya Assembly Speaker who is also the president of United Democratic Party (UDP). Meanwhile, South Shillong is represented by BJP’s Shanbor Sullai, who is also the only saffron minister in the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government. Both UDP and BJP are constituents of the MDA, but will be contesting the elections alone.
The NPP is saying they aren’t strong in these seats. Though it is claiming that it is going to get a majority on its own, the NPP, battling against a visible anti-incumbency, knows it is a tall claim and by leaving the two seats for two senior leaders of the allies, it is giving a positive signal to both UDP and BJP that the options for a post-poll alliance are open.
BJP’s Jan Bishwas Yatra Ends In Tripura
On January 12, the national president of BJP JP Nadda addressed the concluding rally of the party’s Jan Bishwas Yatra, which was flagged off on January 5 by Union Home Minister Amit Shah from Dharmanagar of North Tripura district and Sabroom of South Tripura district. The eight-day yatra covered all 60 constituencies of the state. During his speech, Nadda specifically trained his guns on the main Opposition party CPI(M) and Congress.
Ahead of the upcoming state polls, this yatra has no doubt energised the ground-level workers and supporters of the saffron party, which has been facing the heat of anti-incumbency. The challenges remain. The party is looking for a new ally in the tribal belt, where it has failed to expand its base. Its current ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura no longer commands the support it had back in 2018. After the demise of party supremo NC Debbarma this month, IPFT’s future now hangs in the balance.
But Pradyot Debbarma, who leads the TIPRA Motha, isn’t ready to ally with the saffron party, despite repeated overtures made by the central leadership. He is unhappy with the party’s tribal wing leaders like Tripura East Lok Sabha MP Rebati Tripura, Rampada Jamatia, who is currently the tribal affairs minister of the state. Pradyot also has been unhappy with the state leadership of the saffron party since the induction of Patal Kanya Jamatia, who was once his political aide and is currently the BJP’s state vice-president. These leaders have been given the task to expand the saffron party in the hills and they have been quite critical of the Motha. There are 20 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes and apart from these, there are around 15-16 seats where the tribals have a sizeable presence.
Meanwhile, the bonhomie between the two Opposition parties — CPI(M) and Congress — is also alarming for the saffron party, which denies this publicly. The saffron party can’t deny the fact that both the opposition parties have gained strength in recent times and now both are eager to enter into a seat-sharing agreement. If the agreement is done smoothly and the leaders of the two parties can convince their voters about the pact, goings could get tough for the saffron party.
Strike In Nagaland Demanding Solution To Naga Political Issue
The Nagaland Political Action Committee (NPAC) has called a state-wide bandh for six hours on January 13 demanding a solution to the Naga political issue before the assembly polls, which are likely to be held by next month. Significantly, the team of the Election Commission of India is currently on a two-day visit starting from January 12. The Naga political issue has been pending since 1997 when the militant Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) declared a truce with the Government of India.
The issue has been facing a deadlock because the NSCN(IM) wants a separate Naga flag and a Naga constitution but the Narendra Modi-led BJP government is against both the Naga flag and the Naga Constitution. Interestingly, the saffron party had campaigned for “Election for Solution” during the last assembly polls. Although the BJP along with its senior partner Nationalist Democratic People’s Party (NDPP) came to power in the state, yet the former, despite having the advantage of being in power at the Centre, failed to fulfil its election promise of "Election for Solution" even after five years — and that’s the reason the NPAC has also strictly attacked the saffron party.
The issue isn’t a time-bound one. This is a complex issue that needs to be solved by taking all stakeholders on board. Elections are a part of the constitutional process and can’t be put on hold. And the Naga political issue needs to be kept out of the election gimmicks.
CPI(M) Leadership Ready For Pact With Congress In Tripura
The CPI(M), which is the main opposition party in Tripura, convened a one-day state committee meeting on Tuesday and it was attended by the party’s national general secretary Sitaram Yechury and his predecessor and politburo member Prakash Karat. Addressing a press conference Wednesday, Yechury clearly stated that his party is ready to enter into seat-sharing adjustments with like-minded parties to defeat the BJP in the upcoming assembly polls in the state.
When asked about which parties he referred to, he mentioned the Congress, once the arch-rival of CPI(M), and Pradyot Debbarma’s TIPRA Motha. Although the Congress has shown its intention for a pact, Motha hasn’t said anything officially as of now. Yechury, however, was clear that there would be no other front apart from the existing Left Front. He said the party won’t follow in the footsteps of the party’s West Bengal unit, which formed a front called Sanjukta Morcha, comprising Congress, Indian Secular Front and the existing Left Front, in the 2021 assembly polls.
Interestingly, when asked about Motha’s demand for Greater Tipraland, Yechury tried to say that this demand is constitutional — which he isn't wrong — and avoided answering this question. He said his party has been demanding greater autonomy for the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC). TIPRA Motha’s base has expanded by eating into IPFT’s base, which had expanded by eating into CPI(M)’s base. In the tribal belt, currently dominated by Motha, the Left party has been trying to get back its lost ground from Motha and has been quite critical of the Greater Tipraland demand.
The CPI(M) doesn’t support Greater Tipraland but to defeat the BJP, it is also trying to have a seat adjustment with Motha — and that’s the reason Yechury and Jitendra Chaudhury, the party’s state secretary, are trying to avoid the issue now by calling it a constitutional demand — and are highlighting other crucial issues like providing greater autonomy to the tribal body, an old demand of the Left party.
The author is a political commentator.
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