Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and officer-bearers of election-bound States will attend a meeting convened by party president Amit Shah in New Delhi on September 5. Tripura and Meghalaya in the northeast face Assembly elections in February next year.
Tripura State president Biplab Deb confirmed receipt of a notice from Mr. Shah’s office for the meeting that will discuss organisational matters and strategies with leaders of different States. Mr. Deb also said that the Northeast Democratic Alliance (NEDA), an offshoot of the BJP, would also hold a meeting in New Delhi on September 5.
Assam’s Finance Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sharma will chair the meeting with members of regional parties. Dr. Sharma may invite some more regional parties with an eye to capture more heft in the region.
The BJP has in power in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, and its government in Manipur has to depend heavily on smaller regional parties to remain in power. In Meghalaya, the party has already struck an alliance with a few local parties but still needs a boost to take on Congress.
In Tripura, the BJP is yet to tie knot with a regional parties for reasons that the main tribal party Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) is relentlessly in agitation path to demand a separate tribal state and the old tribal party Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) lost its base much to IPFT which made dent in state’s hills.
Mr. Deb has not cleared air over entry of IPFT and INPT in NEDA. He said its upto NEDA leadership to take a call. He had earlier disfavoured an alliance with IPFT citing its contentious demand of separate state called ‘Tipraland’ or land of tribals.
Sources in BJP said NEDA may try to influence IPFT to eschew Tipraland demand and seek a viable alternative like state autonomous council take cue of Bodo Territorial Council (BTC) in Assam. 20 of 60 seats in Tripura assembly are reserved for tribal and IPFT’s presence in the reserved seats could hit BJP hard in election.
