In Tripura, Congress join hands with Left ::: Nagaland saffron outfit red-faced over 'NSCN threats'
New Delhi
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| M Kharkrang in race for BJP ticket |
It is the election season and despite winter being chilly in the north east, the real drama of electoral games, ministerial sponsorship related to the insurgency saga and row over distribution of tickets have started warming up the political atmosphere.
In Tripura,such is the intensity of the fight that two traditional rivals the Congress and the Left have come together and floated a new front. The Meghalaya BJP will recommend party tickets for at least 56 candidates at the earliest.
But importantly, BJP's Organisational general secretary, B L Santhosh, will visit Tura in Meghalaya on Jan 24 and 25. Tura is the hub of Garo tribe in Meghalaya and the saffron party is optimistic of making deeper penetration.
Meetings of party's Core Committee and Election management committees scheduled for Monday, Jan 23 in Shillong were cancelled.
On Jan 25, Santhosh will hold discussions with Mandal presidents and state office bearers. There is also a scheduled meeting with party's election management committee.
Sources said once the 'recommendations' from the state units on tickets reach BJP high command the parliamentary board that also includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet and take final decision on the tickets. Tripura goes to the polls on Feb 16 while Meghalaya and Nagaland have the voting on Feb 27.
There are applicants for BJP tickets in Meghalaya from as many as 56 candidates in the 60-member assembly. There are demands for saffron party tickets from multiple candidates in many seats including a few "possible winning" seats in Shillong. For North Shillong, a cosmopolitan assembly segment, two key party leaders are seeking the BJP ticket. In this segment 40 per cent of voters are non-tribals including Bengali and Bihari Hindus.
A former cop M Kharkrang is in the race for BJP ticket and so is L Michael Kharsyntiew. The Trinamool Congress has also fielded a woman candidate Elgiva Rynjah for North Shillong.
Many in Nagaland BJP were surprised at the central BJP's electoral strategies vis-a-vis Nagaland and Meghalaya. In Meghalaya, the BJP has dumped its ally Conrad Sangma-led NPP and will go alone. In 2018, BJP had won only two seats in Meghalaya. But in Nagaland, the BJP had won 12 out of only 20 seats it contested and so it had a better strike rate than NDPP (which won 18 out of 40). But in Nagaland, to the surprise of many, the BJP has settled for 20 seats yet again whereas there were strong demands for at least making the partnership equal.
The BJP's popularity and acceptability of Narendra Modi as a popular Prime Minister in Nagaland could be gauged from the fact that a senior NDPP legislator Imkong L Imchen resigned as MLA on Jan 21, Saturday, and is still eyeing a BJP ticket.
So are a few more Ao leaders from Mokokchung district including Alemtemshi Jamir, a former Chief Secretary. Alemtemshi was the founding working president of NDPP in 2017 when Rio and veteran leader Chingwang Konyak had floated the party.
But Alem and several others could not take a final decision yet as the BJP is still contesting only 20 seats and his assembly constituency Mongoya is in the NDPP's kitty.
In a move that would leave friends and foes shell-shocked, the BJP may now explore the possibilities of 'friendly contests' in half-a-dozen seats in Nagaland. "Friendly contests are not alien to electoral politics. This is no violation of the coalition Dharma too," an insider suggested.
"This way the 20:40 alliance is also honoured and the BJP can keep the morale of the karyakartas high," the source said.
The seat-share discussions on Jan 19 in Delhi and reported controversies about alleged 'threats' from NSCN-IM insisting to NDPP leaders to take Pughoboto seat for a nephew of a late NSCN-IM leader has embarrassed BJP as well.
Trying to keep up the attack on BJP, Nagaland Congress president K Therie in a statement said that, “it was not intimidation but was a directive from the NDPP High Command".
“The directive (ostensibly from NSCN-IM) was perhaps to award NDPP ticket to NDPP MLA, Y Vikheho Swu and not give the constituency to the BJP". Therie also alleged that the BJP was having an “alliance with a separatist political party in Nagaland.”
A senior BJP leader in Nagaland told this journalist: "This episode is a big embarrassment as nationalism is a crucial issue for us in the BJP. In fact, over this issue, we should snap ties with the NDPP and contest all 60 seats alone".
"Guwahati cannot undermine the political aspirations of Nagas to back the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," the source said perhaps in reference to a key leader who is known for his friendship with NDPP leader and Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio.
There were reports of fracas by a section of BJP workers in Dimpaur protesting against the 20:40 seat share formula on Sunday, Jan 22.
Moreover, sources said the alleged 'Neta-ultras' nexus is a subject Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised time and again in meetings with DGPs and security agencies. During the stint of L K Advani and Rajnath Singh as Union Home Minister(s) -- dossiers were "prepared and updated".
R N Ravi, a former IB sleuth and former Nagaland Governor, too was aware of the menace and in 2021 had raised the bogey of 'extortion'.
For all practical purposes, Ravi had also suggested that the rampant extortion racket in Nagaland had the blessings of the so-called Neta-underground influence.
Of course, Rio himself in a statement denied on Friday that the seat-share parleys on Jan 19 in Delhi had made any reference to any "threat".
In yet another poll-bound state - Tripura, the compulsions of electoral battles have brought two traditional rivals the Congress and the Left parties together.
The CPI-M led Left Front and the Congress despite their strategic ties in central politics happened to be the two bitter rivals in Tripura’s sharply polarised bi-polar political set up from the beginning until 2018 when the BJP could oust the CPI-M.
The rally was the first public display of the newly formed alliance— Democratic Secular Front where two former Chief Ministers- Samir Ranjan Barman (Congress) and Left Front’s Manik Sarkar participated.
Lone Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman, his father and former Chief Minister Samir Ranjan Barman, AICC secretary Szarita Laitphlang were seen walking down the roads at Agartala side by side with Left leaders including Manik Sarkar and Jitendra Chowdhury burying their long held hatchet for the first time in a public rally.
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| Can Leftists fight back ? |
BJP leader and the state Chief Minister Manik Saha has reacted to Left-Congress coming together stating, “The relationship between Congress and the Left Front is nothing new".
In West Bengal in 2021 after the Left and the Congress party had ideologically backed Mamata Banerjee, many say Trinamool's win became much easier and the saffron party's much ambitious juggernaut was negated by the voters in the state.
But what can be slightly worrying for Trinamool Congress is that in Tripura the percentage of Muslim voters is not much and thus Mamata Banerjee's magic has an inherent disadvantage even among Hindu Bengali population. This was proved in the fiercely contested Tripura civic polls just a few months back.
"Mamata Banerjee's 'Muslim card' does not have many takers in Tripura. The Bengali population in Tripura unlike West Bengal are overwhelmingly Hindu migrants from Bangladesh and hence they are likely to be persuaded by BJP's Hindutva agenda," says shopkeeper Samar Kar in Agartala.
The BJP sources agree with such a refrain. Sources point out that in Nov 2021 civic polls, the Muslim population in two key sensitive assembly hubs Sonamura and Kailashahar - where they are determining factors in many wards - had voted for the saffron party.
ends
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| This worked for BJP in 2018: Tripura |
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