NEW DELHI, Jan 19: The BJP will go alone in the elections in Meghalaya and Tripura and as a junior partner to NDPP in Nagaland. The party’s North-Eastern strategist, the Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Thursday the party’s electoral arrangements for the three states going to the polls next month.
A day after the Election Commission declared election dates for Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland, Sarma told reporters in Delhi that in Nagaland he NDPP would contest on 40 seats and the BJP in 20 for the 60-member state Assembly going to the polls on February 27. Mr Sarma has been camping in Delhi and strategizing for the party with other regional parties.
“As part of the NEDA, BJP and NDPP has finalised seat-sharing for Nagaland polls. The NDPP will contest in 40 seats and BJP will contest 20 seats,” Sarma said. “Pradyot Debbarma met me informally but for Tripura there is a different set of leaders who are looking at alliances. In Meghalaya, we have decided to fight solo, so we are not forming any alliance. In Tripura, the Tipra Motha is actually not part of the BJP-led NEDA,” Mr Sarma said.
Of the three states, the BJP has been able to form an alliance only in Nagaland. It will fight the election in an alliance with Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio’s NDPP; in Meghalaya, like in the last election, the BJP will go solo and in Tripura it is in informal talks with royal scion Mr Debbarma’s Tipra Motha.
Mr Debbarma on Thursday held a closed-door ‘informal’ meeting with Mr Sarma in Delhi and was said to have discussed the issue of Greater Tipraland. “We have held a meeting with NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma in Delhi and I have clearly said we would not compromise with Greater Tipraland demand. In the past we have said we will form an alliance with any national party if they give written assurance of a constitutional solution to the greater Tipraland demand,” Debbarma said.
“We will be contesting in 40-45 seats. We cannot negotiate on the Greater Tipraland issue for any post or alliance until our people are given assurance in writing for a constitutional solution under Article 2 and 3 for Greater Tipraland,” he said.
The Tripura Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance or Tipra Motha, a regional political party led by the royal scion, is seeking a separate state for the indigenous people of Tripura.
(Manas Dasgupta)
