Assembly Election 2023 Date, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura:
The Election Commission has announced the schedule for Assembly elections to the three states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland. All the constituencies of Tripura will vote in a single phase on February 16. Meghalaya and Nagaland will vote on February 27. Votes will be counted in all the three states on March 2.
The tenures of the three assemblies, with 60 seats each, end on March 12, 15 and 22, respectively. Last week, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel had visited the three Northeastern states to review the poll preparations. The poll schedule of the three states were chalked out keeping in mind Board examinations and the movement of security forces.
The BJP is in power in Tripura and a part of the ruling coalitions with the National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) in Nagaland and with the National People’s Party (NPP) in Meghalaya. A total of 62.8 lakh voters will cast their vote in the three states, with around 2.8 lakh new voters added to the list, said Rajiv Kumar.
Heat is on as poll season begins in NE, with VIP visits, alliance cracks, statehood talks
Ahead of the coming Assembly elections, the poll season in the Northeast is heating up, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah dropping in for a visit to Tripura and Nagaland this week. Along with Meghalaya, the two states are scheduled to hold elections next month. The high-profile visits, following soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tour of Tripura and Meghalaya last month, signals the BJP’s early push in a region where it now is part of the ruling coalition in most states, in some form or another.
In Tripura, Shah flagged off the BJP campaign with a rath yatra, its first for the state, to highlight its government’s achievements, after dislodging the CPI(M) from power after five years.
A look back at Tripura’s 2018 assembly elections
The BJP came to power in the state for the first time in 2018, ending a 25-year reign of the Left Front. On May 14, 2022, in an abrupt change, the BJP dropped Biplab Deb and brought in the relatively low-key Manik Saha as CM. The Congress and CPI(M) are trying to put up a fight together, and there is increasing talk of an alliance between the two, while the tribal TIPRA Motha party, formed in 2021, may take away tribal votes of BJP’s ally IPFT. TIPRA Motha may end up being a decisive factor in the elections.
Seats won in 2018 and vote share:
BJP – 35 (43.59%)
CPI(M) – 16 (42.22%)
IPFT – 8 (7.38%)