BJP will form Govt on its own in Manipur : Sarma

GUWAHATI, Jan 2
Assam CM and Neda convener Himanta Biswa Sarma said the BJP on its own will form the next Government in Manipur, where polls are likely to held in March, and asserted that the BJP is here to stay in the North East and its electoral victories between 2016 and 2019 was not a one-off performance.
Sarma’s prediction on Manipur indicates that the BJP is in line with ally NPP chief and Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma and his party will contest the election alone. The other major ally, NPF, has not made any announcement on continuing with the alliance with the BJP so far.
He said NDA’s victories in all the seven NE States from 2016 to 2019 was not a one-off performance and that the same Governments will be retained in the six States where elections are lined up till 2024, starting with Manipur, which will be followed by elections in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura together in early 2023 and Mizoram towards the end of the same year. Arunachal Pradesh will go to the polls together with the Lok Sabha election in 2024.
“My own assessment is that after five successive years, all the Governments in all the NE States will be retained. This is the second BJP Government in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. In Manipur, we are going to form a Government on our own this time. Last time, it was a big coalition but this time I am confident that there will be a proper BJP Government in Manipur,” Sarma said.
He added, “In Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya also we will see a stronger NDA and stronger BJP after the next elections in the States. In Tripura, too, we are going to repeat,” Sarma said.
“Finally, it will be established that wining the North East was not one of those occasions. BJP has come to stay here in North East and it will be proved after these series of elections,” he added.
The BJP formed its first Government in the North East in Arunachal Pradesh in 2003 but that was through a mass defection led by Gegong Apang. The saffron party’s first elected Government was in 2016 in Assam through a coalition in which Sarma played the most important role. He then stitched a coalition of five parties in Manipur to form the first Government in 2017 followed by similar feats in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura.
“Political history was created in Assam last year when the BJP-led coalition became the only non-Congress Government to retain power for the second consecutive term in the State,” he said.
He added that the BJP’s rise to power in Assam has kept Ajmal in abeyance. “If the BJP hadn’t formed the Government in Assam, Ajmal saab would have been the Chief Minister. But in 30 years’ time, we could be heading towards that,” he said.
Times of India