Northeast polls: What past trends tell us about polls in Tripura, Meghalaya & Nagaland
Meghalaya, Nagaland and
Tripura
are the
first among the nine states going to polls
this year.
BJP
has attempted to consolidate its hold in the Northeast through its Northeast Democratic Alliance, which was formed in 2016 to bring regional parties under its umbrella. Ananay Agarwal, research lead at Ashoka University’s Trivedi Centre for Political Data, looks at historical polling trends in the three states that are set to get new governments on March 2.
Why it could be a tight contest in Tripura
In a political shift for Tripura, for long a Left bastion, the 2018 assembly polls saw the BIP-led NDA win a comfortable majority, bagging 44 of the 60 seats. BJP won 35 seats on its own, ending CPM-led Left Front's 25-year hold on government. Congress, the main opposition party in the state since the 1970s, failed to win a single seat. ‘This time, CPM and
Congress
have formed a pre-poll alliance to counter BJP, which has retained the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) as its regional partner.