Mixed bag for BJP

THE BJP-led Centre’s sustained infrastructure push in Arunachal Pradesh has helped the party sweep the Assembly elections and retain power in the border state. The BJP won 46 seats in the 60-member House. The Congress, with just one seat, was relegated to an abysmal fifth position. The projects launched or completed in Arunachal in recent years are part of a long-term plan to counter China’s aggressive strategy to develop villages along the Line of Actual Control. In March, PM Modi had dedicated the Sela tunnel to the nation. This border infrastructure project, which connects Guwahati to the strategic Tawang sector round the year, is aimed at facilitating faster movement of troops. It was Tawang’s Yangtse region where Indian and Chinese soldiers clashed in December 2022.

However, the saffron party, which has been making rapid strides in the North-East, was routed in the Sikkim Assembly polls. The BJP failed to win any seat, even though it had 12 members in the outgoing House. The party had drawn a blank in the 2019 Assembly elections as well, but it had poached 10 MLAs of the Sikkim Democratic Front and won two bypolls in alliance with the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM). Its decision to part ways with the SKM and go solo cost it dear. Like in Arunachal, the Congress was unable to open its account in Sikkim. The grand old party has been helplessly seeing its fortunes plummet in northeastern states.

The BJP and its allies are expected to win the majority of the Lok Sabha seats in these states, according to exit polls. The outcome in Manipur, a BJP-ruled state that has been in the throes of ethnic violence for the past year, will be keenly watched. It remains to be seen if the ‘double-engine’ government’s gross mishandling of the crisis will prove to be the all-important factor in the results.