SPECIAL STORY
B L Santhosh, the BJP general secretary Organisation will visit Tura on Tuesday to chair the party’s Core Committee and Election management committee.
During his two day visit the strategist of the saffron party will formulate the election road map for Garo Hills. The meeting will also be attended by senior leaders, state unit President Ernest Mawrie and state prabhari M Chuba Ao.
Known to be the Talent spotter, trouble-shooter, organisation builder—senior BJP leader B L Santosh wears many hats with equal ease. However, for Meghalaya, his skills in finding winnable factors during election will prove important.
With just a month left for the poll, Santosh is tasked to mend the party which has been in the news for the wrong reason.
According to sources, “During the meeting, there will be discussion on the strategies for election, BJP leaders will also discuss about the plans and strategies for campaigning.”
The meeting will deliberate and discuss issues to be raised during the poll, sources informed.
On Jan 25, Santosh will hold discussions with Mandal presidents and state office bearers. There is also a scheduled meeting with the party’s election management committee.
Asked if any recommendation will be made on ticket aspirants, sources said,” No such discussion will be there but since the meeting will have an open agenda some discussion about criteria and all about ticket aspirants may be discussed, but no recommendation will be made.”
As many as three sitting legislators from Garo Hills including one Independent joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in December. Of these two legislators are from the ruling NPP.
Following this big catch, BJP is giving its best to gain a few seats in Garo Hills.
Four times MLA, Samuel Sangma is an Independent legislator from Baghmara constituency is considered heavy weight.
Benedict Marak (Raksamgre) and Fairlene Sangma (Selsella) sitting MLAs from NPP have upheld the hope of the saffron party to make a space in Garo Hills.
Recently, BJP state president Ernest Mawrie claimed a survey has indicated that the party will win 10-15 seats in the coming elections.
Mawrie informed the party is fielding candidates from all the 60 constituencies. Over 123 people have applied for tickets from the BJP.
He said there are also constituencies which are having multiple aspirants like Dalu with four aspirants and Mahendraganj with six.
As Meghalaya and Nagaland have the voting on Feb 27 while Tripura goes to the polls on Feb 16, BJP is yet to announce its candidates.
Sources said the final decision on the tickets will be taken up by BJP high command the parliamentary board after they were presented the list by State BJP president on the recommendation of the election committee.
There are applicants for BJP tickets in Meghalaya from as many as 56 candidates in the 60-member assembly. There are demands for saffron party tickets from multiple candidates in many seats including a few “possible winning” seats in the state.
One such constituency is North Shillong, a cosmopolitan assembly segment, two key party leaders are seeking the BJP ticket. In this segment 40 per cent of voters are non-tribals including Bengali and Bihari Hindus. A former cop M Kharkrang is in the race for BJP ticket and so is L Michael Kharsyntiew.
The Trinamool Congress has also fielded a woman candidate Elgiva Rynjah for North Shillong.
Many in Nagaland BJP were surprised at the central BJP’s electoral strategies vis-a-vis Nagaland and Meghalaya. In Meghalaya, BJP has dumped its ally Conrad Sangma-led NPP and will go alone.
In 2018, BJP had won only two seats in Meghalaya. But in Nagaland, the BJP had won 12 out of only 20 seats it contested and so it had a better strike rate than NDPP (which won 18 out of 40).
But in Nagaland, to the surprise of many, the BJP has settled for 20 seats yet again whereas there were strong demands for at least making the partnership equal.
A senior NDPP legislator Imkong L Imchen resigned as MLAon Jan 21, Saturday, and is still eyeing a BJP ticket.
In a move that would leave friends and foes shell-shocked, the BJP may now explore the possibilities of ‘friendly contests’ in half-a-dozen seats in Nagaland.
“Friendly contests are not alien to electoral politics. This is no violation of the coalition Dharma too,” an insider suggested.
“This way the 20:40 alliance is also honoured and the BJP can keep the morale of the karyakartas high,” the source said.
The seat-share discussions on Jan 19 in Delhi and reported controversies about threats from NSCN-IM insistingto NDPP leaders to take Pughoboto seat for a nephew of a late NSCN-IM leader has embarrassed BJP as well.
Trying to keep up the attack on BJP, Nagaland Congress president K Therie in a statement said that, “it was not intimidation but was a directive from the NDPP High Command”.
Sources said the alleged ‘Neta-ultras’ nexus is a subject Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised time and again in meetings with DGPs and security agencies. During the stint of L K Advani and Rajnath Singh as Union Home Minister(s) — dossiers were “prepared and updated”.
NSA Ajit Doval had also taken up the matter at his level in the past. R N Ravi, a former IB sleuth and former Nagaland Governor, too was aware of the menace and in 2021 had raised the bogey of ‘extortion’. For all practical purposes, Ravi had also suggested that the rampant extortion racket in Nagaland had the blessings of the so-called Neta-underground influence.
Of course, Rio himself in a statement denied on Friday that the seat-share parleys on Jan 19 had made any reference to any “threat”.
In yet another poll-bound state – Tripura, the compulsions of electoral battles have brought two traditional rivals the Congress and the Left parties together.
The CPI-M led Left Front and the Congress despite their strategic ties in central politics happened to be the two bitter rivals in Tripura’s sharply polarised bi-polar political set up from the beginning until 2018 when the BJP could oust the CPI-M.
The rally was the first public display of the newly formed alliance— Democratic Secular Front where two former Chief Ministers- Samir Ranjan Barman (Congress) and Left Front’s Manik Sarkar participated.
Lone Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman, his father and former Chief Minister Samir Ranjan Barman, AICC secretary Szarita Laitphlang were seen walking down the roads at Agartala side by side with Left leaders includingManik Sarkar and Jitendra Chowdhury burying their long held hatchet for the first time in a public rally.
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–Nirendra DevNew Delhi