Polls to Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland mark start to semis

People of the three northeastern states – Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland – are set to cast votes next month – commencing a series of Assembly polls, which are scheduled to be held through 2023 and are being perceived as the semifinals before the 2024 parliamentary elections.

Tripura will go to polls on February 16, while voting in Meghalaya and Nagaland will be conducted on February 27, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced at a news-conference in New Delhi on Wednesday. The votes cast in all the three states, each having 60 Assembly constituencies, will be counted on March 2, added Kumar in the presence of the two other Election Commissioners, Anup Pandey and Arun Goel.

The polls in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland will be followed by elections in Karnataka in the middle the year and in Mizoram, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan towards the end of the year. The EC may also hold Assembly polls in Jammu & Kashmir this year itself, before going for the Lok Sabha elections in April-May next year. The Assembly elections in Odisha, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh will take place along with the parliamentary polls.

Read | Tough battle for BJP in Tripura, allies confident in Meghalaya, Nagaland

Over 28.23 lakh voters, including more than 65,000 young and newly enrolled ones, are expected to cast votes in 60 Assembly constituencies, including 10 reserved for Scheduled Castes and 10 for Scheduled Tribes, in Tripura. The EC will set up 3,328 polling stations in the state this time – up from 3,214 in 2018, the Chief Election Commissioner said.

The BJP and its ally, Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), have been ruling Tripura since 2018, when the Left Front-led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was voted out of power after a 25-year-long stint.

The Left Front is now in talks with the Congress and newly emerged Tipra Motha party to forge an alliance to take on the BJP, led by Chief Minister Manik Saha and former Chief Minister Biplab Deb.

The EC will set up 2,315 polling stations – up from 2,194 in 2018 – for over 13.17 lakh voters, including 24,689 young and newly-enrolled ones, in the 60 constituencies in Nagaland, Kumar told journalists on Wednesday.

Nagaland is the only state with no party in the Opposition bench. The BJP has been supporting the National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) led by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, who also has support of the legislators of the Naga People’s Front and the independents.

Meghalaya has 21.64 lakh voters, including 28,117 young and newly enrolled ones, to elect the 60-member-Assembly of the state. The commission will set up 3,482 polling stations in the state this time – up from 3,083, the CEC said.

The BJP has been supporting Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s National People’s Party in Meghalaya since 2018. The Trinamool Congress, which could not win a single seat in the state Assembly, turned into the main Opposition party in the state in November 2021, when 12 out of the 17 Congress legislators led by Mukul Sangma joined Mamata Banerjee’s party. The NPP and the BJP may however contest the forthcoming Assembly polls without any pre-electoral understanding.

"The commission has directed enforcement agencies to be impartial and transparent in their functioning, ensuring a level playing field. The agencies will work in a coordinated manner,” Kumar said on Wednesday.