Although the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 is expected to play a major role in the Lok Sabha polls, it seems the issue is gradually losing grounds in the region.
Although most of the regional political parties in the northeastern states have opposed the controversial Bill and even threatened to quit from BJP led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), some of the parties are going t the polls as part of NEDA alliance partners.
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While the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) had already returned to the BJP led alliance in Assam and announced that it would contest the forthcoming polls together with the BJP, Nagaland’s ruling party NDPP has also decided to contest the Lok Sabha polls together with the BJP.
The National Peoples’ Party (NPP) of Meghalaya, however, said that the party will go it alone in the polls and added that they are likely to field candidates in all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the northeastern states.
“It was a hectic day of parlays yesterday in the Northeast. Sustained negotiations at Dimapur and Guwahati with different senior leaders like Sh N Rio, CM, Nagaland; Sh Sarbananda Sonowal, CM, Assam; Sh Conrad Sangma, CM, Meghalaya, Sh Biren Singh, CM, Manipur; Sh Pema Khandu, CM, Arunachal Pradesh and Sh Himanta Biswa Sarma, Convenor, NEDA in the company of other leaders have finally sealed the alliance and electoral understanding between the BJP and all major parties in the Northeast,” BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav said in a facebook post.
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“The BJP, NPP, NDPP, AGP and BPF will fight together in Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh with the mission of defeating Congress party at the hustings. In Tripura, the BJP will fight the elections together with IPFT, our alliance partner. In Sikkim, our alliance will be with SKM, the main Opposition party,” he further said in the post.
“While the Opposition is still talking and talking about Mahagatbandhan, we already have ours in place in the Northeast and the rest of the country. The NDA is a much stronger coalition today than before,” Ram Madhav said adding that this alliance has the potential of winning not less than 22 out of 25 seats in the region and playing an important role in seeing Modiji as the PM once again.
NEDA convener and Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that the partners of the NEDA are intact and added that with AGP and NDPP back to NEDA fold, the BJP led alliance are likely to win 22 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in the region.
“Till yesterday I was telling that that the NEDA alliance combined will get 19 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Assam. However, with the AGP and NDPP back into our fold I think NEDA alliance combined will get 22 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in the Northeast,” Sarma told reporters on Wednesday.