BJP continues to march on in North-East region

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continued to consolidate its position in the northeastern part of India by winning as many as 21 seats in the Manipur assembly elections from none in the last 15 years.

With sizable increase in its vote percentage -- 36.3 per cent, the BJP remained in the second position after the Congress, which won 28 seats, though with lower 35.1 per cent votes.

Although the BJP had not won a single seat during the last three assembly elections, two BJP candidates had won in the two by-polls in 2015. However, one of them later resigned and joined the Congress ahead of the polls.

The record increase in the party's vote share comes after the BJP formed its governments in three other states -- with absolute majority in Arunachal Pradesh and through alliances in Assam and Nagaland -- even though the party has been traditionally dubbed as "anti-tribal".

In 2016, the BJP formed its first government in Assam in alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bodo People's Front. It had won 60 seats in the 126-member Assam assembly, and the AGP with 14 seats helped the party form the government.

In Arunachal, the BJP has an absolute-majority government with 47 MLAs in the 60-member House. In Nagaland, it is in coalition with the Naga People's Front.

According to BJP leaders, people from the North-East have realised that only the BJP-run governments can get them the development at par with the rest of India.

"The North-East India wants to be part of the mainstream India... The BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are trying to connect with them even beyond politics," Tapir Gao, President of BJP's Arunachal Unit, who played an important role in BJP's performance in Manipur, told IANS.

Gao -- also credited with the formation of the BJP government in Arunachal, said that people of the region had seen mis-governance under the successive Congress governments.

"People want change and that's why the people of Manipur now have faith in BJP. The reason the party fought every seat is due to the people's liking for the party, which was evident even before the elections," said Gao.

To boost the prospects of the party in the region, a new alliance -- North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) -- was formed in May last year. Since the formation of the NEDA, the BJP has been trying to reach out to the tribal communities in the region, promising them the much-aspired for development.

The NEDA constituents -- Naga People's Front, Sikkim Democratic Front, People's Party of Arunachal, Asom Gana Parishad and Bodoland People's Front -- have together brought about a change in the outlook of the North-East voters for the BJP.

Speaking on the party's increasing vote share in the North-East, Rakesh Sinha, an RSS idealogue, said that the voting pattern in the region was changing.

"In states like Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP has been doing good and that is why, for the first time, the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to vote for the party has worked like a magic for the northeasterners," said Sinha.

(Rupesh Dutta can be reached at rupesh.d@ians.in)

--IANS

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