BJP ramps up ‘look east, act east’ strategy

With Assembly elections in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland less than five months away, the BJP is busy bolstering its 'look east, act east' strategy.

The Northeast region is also vital for the saffron party as eight states send 25 MPs to the Lok Sabha.

Several top saffron leaders are set to visit the region. Union Home Minister Shah and BJP chief J P Nadda, set to get an extension until the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, visited Sikkim and Assam last week.

The BJP would hope to improve its performance in the Northeast, also as a bulwark against the losses it might suffer in the Hindi heartland.

A senior party leader said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also sought to send a message of the region's importance to the party.

"When the PM takes a dip in the Ganga wearing a Manipuri traditional dhoti, he sends a strong message of solidarity with the region. He has travelled 50 times to the northeast since the BJP came to power in 2014," the leader said.

A key campaign issue the BJP has taken up is the region's fight against drugs. As chairman of the North Eastern Council, Shah held a meeting on drug trafficking in Guwahati.

On another key issue, the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the BJP has faced difficult questions after the Congress manifesto of 2019 promised to pull it back.

During his Assam and Sikkim visits last week, Shah said AFSPA will be revoked in areas that have embraced peace.

Yet, a shift in the tribal dynamics in the region could make the BJP's challenge tougher.

In Manipur, smaller regional forces have cropped up, while the BJP continues to face heat from its state units in Mizoram and Meghalaya, asking the party's central leadership to sever alliances with the Zoramthanga-led Mizo National Front and Conrad Sangma's National People's Party.

In Nagaland, the alliance with Neiphiu Rio's Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party faces resistance from some quarters within the BJP.