JOIN USThe results of elections to three state Assemblies in the North-East –Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya — are not indicative of any national political trend or mood and so too much meaning will not be read into them.
They are small states with small Assemblies. Geographical isolation has unfortunately created a political disconnect also, though national parties and even regional parties from other parts of the country have a presence there.
Even when national parties and states with multi-state presence win or dominate there, like in Tripura and Meghalaya in the latest elections, it is because of local reasons. Though this is increasingly true of sub-national level elections in some other parts of the country, it is more so in the North-Eastern states because of the special political, social and cultural traditions there.
The CPM’s emphatic return to power in Tripura was well expected.
Chief minister Manik Sarkar’s personal reputation and the government’s good record of administration, including its success in taming tribal insurgency, ensured the party’s return to power for a fifth consecutive time with a two-thirds majority. What should worry the Congress is the scale of its rout, in spite of Rahul Gandhi’s campaign in the state. But the victory can provide no more than a talking point for the CPM which has lost its two other strongholds of West Bengal and Kerala.
The Congress can find some solace in its emergence as the single largest party in Meghalaya where it is in a position to form the government. It will be happy that it blunted the challenge of P A Sangma who had formed a party which hardly made an impact. In Nagaland the ruling National People’s Front returned to power with an absolute majority for the third time, trouncing the Congress which lost more than half of its seats in the Assembly.
What is common in the three elections is that the incumbent governments will come back to power. Opposition parties in none of the states could pose a serious anti-incumbency challenge. Another remarkable feature was the high voter turnout, which was over 90 per cent in Tripura and over 80 per cent in Nagaland and Meghalaya. The high level of participation is a measure of high voter interest and involvement and so none of the victories is by default.