The BJP is going to tie up with local groups in Tripura to oust the ruling left Government in the State, while the saffron party is looking at prospect of post poll alliances in Meghalaya and in Nagaland, the party is initiating a reconciliation among some Naga Peoples’ Front (NPF) leaders to become king makers.
Assam BJP leader and convener of the BJP led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday on the sidelines of a Press conference, also adding that the objective of the saffron party is to increase the tally in 2019 in all the northeastern States.
“We had a long discussion with the NC Debbarma faction of the Indigenous Peoples’ Front of Tripura (IPFT) last night and almost clinched an alliance. However, it requires approval from the Central party leadership and the Central leadership will make an official announcement soon,” said Sarma.
“The discussion continued till Friday morning and we are going to send the details to our central leadership ,” he said.
“In Meghalaya, however, we are looking at the prospect of post poll alliance with the NEDA partners. All the NEDA partners will go to the polls alone and then we will have an alliance. It is like we did in Manipur,” he said.
“In Nagaland, we are trading very cautiously. We are basically trying to have a reconciliation among long term friends like TR Zeliang, Neiphu Rio and Dr. Shurhozelie liezietsu. The Congress is not there in the scene in Nagaland, so our main motto is to establish stability by bringing together these three factions of leaders,” he said.
While Chief Minister TR Zeliang and Dr. Shurhozelie liezietsu are members of the NPF, both are leading two factions and Neiphu Rip, who is a lok Sabha MP, has recently resigned from the party to join a new political party National Democratic Peoples’ Party (NDPP).
Out of the three poll bound northeastern states, Tripura is going to polls on February 18, the other two states—Meghalaya and Nagaland will to polls on February 27. The counting of votes in all the three states will take place on March 3.