New Delhi: The counting of votes for Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura is underway. Early leads show the National People's Party (NPP) registering 30.9% of the vote share in Meghalaya. In Nagaland, Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) is leading with 36.5% of votes and in Tripura, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 40.6% of the vote share.
BJP is leading in both Tripura and Nagaland with 31 and 41 seats.
In Meghalaya, the NPP is leading with 25 seats, the BJP fought on all 60 seats for the first time and constantly targeted NPP’s leader and Chief Minister Conrad Sangma for running the "most corrupt" state government in the country.
With 15.5 percent votes the United Democratic Party (UDP) is closely following Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s party NPP. Meanwhile, Congress has registered 13.8% of the vote share.
In Nagaland, the BJP is close at heels with 15.7% vote share, while Congress has registered 1.55% votes. The ruling BJP-NDPP alliance is at the halfway mark in Nagaland with 39 seats, followed by Naga People's Front (NPP) with 4 seats and the Congress with 3 seats, as per early trends.
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The CPI (M) is following closely behind BJP with 23.3% votes in Tripura while Congress has registered 10.40% votes. In Tripura traditional rivals, the Congress and the Left Front had joined hands for the first time in the state's history in a bid to defeat the BJP.
Counting of the votes began at 8 am on Thursday, in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura amid high security. The voting in Tripura took place on February 16, whereas the polling was held across 59 constituencies each in the two states took place on February 27.
The BJP which is a part of the coalition government in all three states is eyeing a victory in Tripura and a comeback in Nagaland and Meghalaya. The Left, on the other hand, fought in these elections with arch-rivals Congress.