More than 34 lakh electors would choose their new representatives from among 552 candidates in Meghalaya and Nagaland on February 27, 2023.
Like Tripura, where the Assembly elections were held on February 16, both Meghalaya and Nagaland have a 60-member House. But the election would be conducted in 59 seats each.
While BJP candidate Kazheto Kinimi was elected unopposed from Nagaland’s Akuluto constituency after his lone Congress rival Khekashe Sumi opted out of the race, election to the Sohiong seat in Meghalaya was deferred following the death of United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate H.D.R. Lyngdoh.
Meghalaya has never had a clear mandate since the first State election in 1972. The National People’s Party (NPP), claiming to have provided good governance despite facing a slew of corruption charges, is hopeful about crossing the halfway mark of 30 in the Assembly.
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“I hope the people will keep in mind the stability and the development we ensured in the last five years as the largest of the six parties in the alliance government will help us get an absolute majority,” Meghalaya Chief Minister and NPP supremo Conrad K. Sangma said.
Polling officials leave for their respective polling stations after collecting EVMs and other election equipment from a distribution centre, ahead of the Meghalaya Assembly elections, at Nongpoh on February 26, 2023. | Photo Credit: PTI
The NPP is not only against its allies, chiefly the BJP in 56 seats but is also facing rivals Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), a new challenger in the Assembly polls. While the BJP is “realistically” eying “double-digit number” after rivals projected it as an anti-Christian party, Congress seeks to regain its foothold in Meghalaya after losing all its 21 MLAs within four years of becoming the single-largest party in 2018.
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The BJP and UDP, the largest of the NPP’s allies in the Meghalaya government, refused to take part of the blame for the alleged scams as the “NPP called the shots”. The UDP wields considerable clout, especially in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills region comprising 36 Assembly seats across eastern Meghalaya.
The stakes are higher for the TMC, which seeks Meghalaya as a fertile land for expanding its base beyond West Bengal. The TMC became the principal opposition party in Meghalaya overnight in November 2021 when 12 Congress MLAs led by former Chief Minister Mukul M. Sangma switched over. The remaining Congress MLAs subsequently joined other parties.
In the Garo Hills comprising 24 seats, which gave a Chief Minister for 34 of the 50 years of Meghalaya’s existence, the contest is likely to be among the NPP, TMC and BJP. The Khasi-Jaintia Hills is expected to be a “mixed bag” with a chance for at least three regional parties and Congress.
The Congress was more vocal than the other parties about the alleged scams and corruption during the NPP-led rule. It came out with a 10-point “charge-sheet” on scams in the Power Department, Public Distribution System (PDS) rice, COVID spending and illegal coal mining, among others.
Nagaland has also been prone to a fractured mandate but the lack of opposition — Congress and Naga People’s Front (NPF) struggled to field 45 candidates between them — is expected to see the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and ally BJP through. The NPF was the single largest party with 26 seats in 2018.
The NDPP and BJP continued with the 40:20 seat-sharing formula of 2018, the latter having already bagged a seat uncontested.
A weak opposition paved the way for the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) to enter the fray in Nagaland. The Bihar-based party fielded 16 candidates, almost all of whom were denied tickets by the NDPP and BJP.
The LJP (Ram Vilas) is not contesting any of the 19 seats where the BJP has a candidate.
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