Congress has a mountain to climb forward of elections in Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: The upcoming elections in three states of the Northeast will probably be a battle for survival for the Congress which as soon as dominated your entire area however has now gotten diminished to a shadow of its superb previous. The Congress’ slide within the Northeast started after the BJP’s emergence as a powerhouse in 2014.

Simultaneous elections within the 60-member Assemblies of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura are anticipated in February.

As it seems now, the Congress shouldn’t be within the race to energy in any of those states. It lacks leaders after a lot of them embraced the ruling social gathering and different events over a time frame.

COLUMN | The King’s Speech: Why the BJP could discover it troublesome to return to energy in Tripura

The Congress doesn’t have a single MLA in Nagaland, only one in Tripura and 5 in Meghalaya.

However, the 5 in Meghalaya had been suspended earlier this 12 months by the social gathering’s central management for cosying as much as the Conrad Okay Sangma authorities.

The Congress had emerged as the one largest social gathering within the 2018 Meghalaya Assembly elections however the National People’s Party (NPP)-led motley alliance fashioned the federal government. 

In November final 12 months, 12 of 17 Congress MLAs in Meghalaya, led by former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, jumped ship to put on Trinamool Congress (TMC) colors. Their desertion relegated the grand previous social gathering to a extra minor social gathering and made the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC the state’s principal Opposition social gathering in a single day. TMC had no base within the state previous to that.

Shillong MP H Pala is now Congress’s lone distinguished face within the Christian-majority state. The Congress is not going to, maybe, have a single MLA by the point it goes to elections because the 5 suspended legislators have roughly ditched the social gathering and are more likely to contest the polls on the tickets of different political events.

ALSO READ | Four Meghalaya MLAs be part of BJP forward of upcoming elections

In Tripura, Sudip Roy Barman is the Congress’ solely MLA. He had gained the final election on the BJP’s ticket and was inducted into the ministry however he resigned from the Assembly and the social gathering in February this 12 months after falling out with the then-Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb. Later, he gained a by-election, necessitated by his resignation.

The Congress had didn’t win a single seat within the 2018 Tripura elections which the BJP swept, decimating the Left. 

The Congress had additionally drawn a clean within the Nagaland elections of 2018. The social gathering, which had gained many elections underneath former Chief Minister SC Jamir, is now just about misplaced within the state which is dominated by a coalition of BJP, Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party, and Naga People’s Front. All MLAs within the state are from these three events.

The elections within the three states are across the nook however not many individuals are speaking concerning the Congress.

Party leaders, nonetheless, attempt to put up a courageous face. “So what if we have one MLA? Atal Bihari Vajpayee had just two MPs but he went on to become the Prime Minister,” Tripura Congress chief Birajit Sinha informed this newspaper.  “There is a lot going on in Tripura. People will vote us to power,” he mentioned confidently, simply days after seven Congress leaders, led by former state chief Pijush Kanti Biswas, joined the TMC in Tripura.

The Congress in Nagaland sounded equally optimistic. “The Congress is the only alternative and people will vote for it. Not only has the Naga political issue remained unresolved, but the state, under the present government, is also facing bifurcation,” state Congress president Okay Therie mentioned referring to the demand of an influential tribal group for the creation of “Frontier Nagaland” state in jap Nagaland.

READ HERE | ‘Trinamool not a Bengali social gathering, I work for all of India’: Mamata in poll-bound Meghalaya

GUWAHATI: The upcoming elections in three states of the Northeast will probably be a battle for survival for the Congress which as soon as dominated your entire area however has now gotten diminished to a shadow of its superb previous. The Congress’ slide within the Northeast started after the BJP’s emergence as a powerhouse in 2014.

Simultaneous elections within the 60-member Assemblies of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura are anticipated in February.

As it seems now, the Congress shouldn’t be within the race to energy in any of those states. It lacks leaders after a lot of them embraced the ruling social gathering and different events over a time frame.

COLUMN | The King’s Speech: Why the BJP could discover it troublesome to return to energy in Tripura

The Congress doesn’t have a single MLA in Nagaland, only one in Tripura and 5 in Meghalaya.

However, the 5 in Meghalaya had been suspended earlier this 12 months by the social gathering’s central management for cosying as much as the Conrad Okay Sangma authorities.

The Congress had emerged as the one largest social gathering within the 2018 Meghalaya Assembly elections however the National People’s Party (NPP)-led motley alliance fashioned the federal government. 

In November final 12 months, 12 of 17 Congress MLAs in Meghalaya, led by former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, jumped ship to put on Trinamool Congress (TMC) colors. Their desertion relegated the grand previous social gathering to a extra minor social gathering and made the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC the state’s principal Opposition social gathering in a single day. TMC had no base within the state previous to that.

Shillong MP H Pala is now Congress’s lone distinguished face within the Christian-majority state. The Congress is not going to, maybe, have a single MLA by the point it goes to elections because the 5 suspended legislators have roughly ditched the social gathering and are more likely to contest the polls on the tickets of different political events.

ALSO READ | Four Meghalaya MLAs be part of BJP forward of upcoming elections

In Tripura, Sudip Roy Barman is the Congress’ solely MLA. He had gained the final election on the BJP’s ticket and was inducted into the ministry however he resigned from the Assembly and the social gathering in February this 12 months after falling out with the then-Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb. Later, he gained a by-election, necessitated by his resignation.

The Congress had didn’t win a single seat within the 2018 Tripura elections which the BJP swept, decimating the Left. 

The Congress had additionally drawn a clean within the Nagaland elections of 2018. The social gathering, which had gained many elections underneath former Chief Minister SC Jamir, is now just about misplaced within the state which is dominated by a coalition of BJP, Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party, and Naga People’s Front. All MLAs within the state are from these three events.

The elections within the three states are across the nook however not many individuals are speaking concerning the Congress.

Party leaders, nonetheless, attempt to put up a courageous face. “So what if we have one MLA? Atal Bihari Vajpayee had just two MPs but he went on to become the Prime Minister,” Tripura Congress chief Birajit Sinha informed this newspaper.  “There is a lot going on in Tripura. People will vote us to power,” he mentioned confidently, simply days after seven Congress leaders, led by former state chief Pijush Kanti Biswas, joined the TMC in Tripura.

The Congress in Nagaland sounded equally optimistic. “The Congress is the only alternative and people will vote for it. Not only has the Naga political issue remained unresolved, but the state, under the present government, is also facing bifurcation,” state Congress president Okay Therie mentioned referring to the demand of an influential tribal group for the creation of “Frontier Nagaland” state in jap Nagaland.

READ HERE | ‘Trinamool not a Bengali social gathering, I work for all of India’: Mamata in poll-bound Meghalaya