Ringing Congress’s death knell in North East
The fight to finish the battle for the BJP to bring a ‘Congress-mukt Bharat' and then embark on a journey to ‘Congress-mukt North East' is bearing strong significance to the changing dynamics of the country's politics. The inaugural political conclave of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) of the BJP with its allies in the presence of the party president Amit Shah on Wednesday openly issued a strong warning to the Congress and it symbolised the intensity of the party's effort to gearing up support to root out the party from the region.
The BJP with Shah has gradually turned the party into a pan-national platform whereby it is expanding its wings to the far North East by shedding its baggage of a Hindi heartland party. Besides, the Guwahati Declaration signed by all the constituents of the NEDA — the Bodo People's Front, the Asom Gana Parishad, the Ganashakti, the Sikkim Democratic Front, the National People's Party, the Mizo National Front and the Naga People's Front will be viewed as an anti-Congress sermon. This declaration highlights how the NEDA will script strategies for eliminating Congress as a part of the national call given by the NDA. It largely focuses on the role that will be played by the NEDA at local, national and international level for bringing the much neglected region closer to the national mainstream.
The NEDA declaration is also stressing on the overall contribution of the states of North East which has long been either neglected or rather ignored by the successive establishments in Delhi. Indeed, the effort mooted by the BJP initially on May 24, on the day the first BJP-led Government of Sarbananda Sonowal was sworn in Assam, in a way, will be significant if it can dethrone the Congress from one of its so-called home turf. As Assam is the central gateway to all other North Eastern States, therefore, an effort by the NEDA to align the region through this vital State bears special weight age. Moreover, the Modi Government can make Guwahati the centre point of development, but without dampening the sentiments of the rest of the States, it must initiate all efforts to connect the rest without delay. It must be said that the interest shown by Modi in the North Eastern States is remarkable and it will help deepen ties of the mainland towards the periphery.
The North East has been traditionally regarded as a Congress bastion but today, out of the eight States in the region, the BJP has a majority Government in Assam and its allies rule in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim. The Congress has its Governments in three States — Manipur, Meghalaya and in Mizoram. Finally, the left is left only in Tripura where it is currently preventing its folks from joining the Trinamool Congress. It is widely perceived that an initiative like NEDA may attract more Congress MlAs to the BJP, which now has only 26 seats in the 126-member Assam Assembly. The grand old party faced the worst rout in the last lok Sabha poll when it won only 45 seats and since then, it has been struggling with a leadership crisis and witnessing a debate on its relevance with the indispensable Gandhis at the top. The NEDA declaration, pointing once again at the Congress for the ‘neglect and underdevelopment of the region', may act as the death knell for the party.