In Meghalaya, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as a small entity within the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government, starts its pre-2023 Assembly poll campaign with a handicap against its rival, the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Led by former Congress leader Mukul Sangma, the TMC has 12 members in the 60-member state Assembly and leads the opposition against the MDA coalition leader NPP (National People’s Party), headed by chief minister Conrad Sangma. The BJP won only two seats in the 2018 assembly elections. Ironically, the Congress had then narrowly emerged as the biggest party ahead of even the now-ruling NPP. However, post-election parleys led to the formation of the MDA alliance enabling the BJP to join it, under the NPP’s leadership, with support from other smaller regional parties. This helped fulfil the BJP’s main objective in the Northeast — to keep its main opposition Congress out of power. This time, the BJP and the NPP have indicated that they would not have any pre-poll alliance or seat adjustments. The NPP supports the BJP-led NDA government at the centre. This makes it easy for other parties to question its sincerity in distancing itself from the saffron party in Meghalaya. NPP spokespersons maintain that their compulsions in state-level politics and local issues substantially differ from the political choices they face at the national level.
On its part, the BJP too has indicated its decision of going solo and contesting in as many seats as possible. Given the time-honoured traditions of floor crossing in Northeast states, the possibility of the two parties coming together again in a post-poll alliance cannot be ruled out. As for the TMC’s baptism into the volatile Northeast politics during the last few years has followed a roller-coaster pattern. Disaffected leaders and supporters from smaller regional parties have joined its ranks in the past in different Northeastern states. TMC leaders from Kolkata have helped them set up party offices and have also helped with campaigning during elections. However, the outcome of TMC’s Northeast outreach has not been very encouraging, whether in Tripura in recent times, or elsewhere. Worse, the TMC, in common with most other parties, has not been able to preserve its identity at times, failing to halt mass defections to winning parties to maintain the leaders’ local political relevance. It must be noted that the present TMC leader in Meghalaya, Mukul Sangma, has been a veteran Congressman for years, enjoying a special status in the NE region.
CM Conrad Sangma also adopts a statesman-like approach as the pre-poll campaign warms up. He has recently rued the fact that during the last 50 years, Meghalaya had not made much progress, falling behind other states. He said that his party (NPP) had drawn up a vision-cum-roadmap that could be used as a guideline in the future to ensure Meghalaya’s rapid progress over the following decades. Meanwhile, tribal/non-tribal tensions continue to plague Meghalaya’s politics as before. Assam Congress leader Debabrata Saikia recently wrote to the Meghalaya Governor, urging him to take strong action against tribal marchers who recently attacked non-tribal shops and people during a protest march, not even sparing women. However, the police took no action against the offenders. Saikia also called for an immediate probe into the matter, given the continued attacks on non-tribals.
