Tripura goes to polls on February 16, Nagaland, Meghalaya February 27

New Delhi, January 18

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The Assembly elections in Tripura will be conducted on February 16 while Nagaland and Meghalaya will go to the polls on February 27, the Election Commission announced today. The counting of votes in the three north-eastern states, having 60 seats each, would take place on March 2, it said.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar’s announcement at a press conference here marked the start of the first round of Assembly polls to nine states in 2023. The elections are considered crucial in the run up to the Lok Sabha contest in 2024. The BJP is in power in all the three states. While it has been ruling Tripura, it is a junior partner to regional parties in Meghalaya and Nagaland.

In Tripura, a direct fight is expected between the BJP and the CPM-Congress alliance even as the Trinamool Congress is also in the fray. The BJP along with its junior partner IPFT had dislodged the CPM government in 2018.

In the other two states, the contests are going to be mostly among dominant regional parties. The Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) is in power in Nagaland in alliance with the BJP whereas the National People’s Party (NPP), the only political party from the Northeast that has the recognition of a national party, runs the government in Meghalaya.

While the BJP is pulling out all the stops to retain power in Tripura and expand its footprints in the two other states, the Congress and the Left have come together to regain their lost influence.

BJP president JP Nadda, in his recent address at the party’s national executive, called upon its members to ensure the victory of the party in all the nine state Assembly elections scheduled for this year. He said the year was crucial in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

CEC Kumar said with the announcement of polls, the model code of conduct had come into force. The term of the Nagaland Assembly ends on March 12 and that of Meghalaya and Tripura on March 15 and March 22.