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North East: Campaigning in full swing in three poll-bound states |
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Electioneering is in full swing in the three poll-bound states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland.
In Tripura where polling will take place on Feb. 23, the ruling Left Front is all set to occupy the seat of power for a fourth consecutive term. Significantly, for a change its Forward Bloc ally for many years has severed ties with the Left Front and has decided to contest on its own after its demand for three more seats was rejected.
In the last elections, the FB lost its Bardowali constituen¬cy seat to former Congress chief Asoke Bhattacharjee. As if to spite the FB, the Marxists are now fielding a former FB leader and now Agartala municipal councillor SC Mazumdar, who quit in protest against the FB’s breaking away from the LF. This is the second time the Forward Bloc has deserted its ally - in the 1950s it independently contested an electoral college poll. As in the past, the Left Front will take full advantage of the disunity in the Congress, its main opposition.
Unlike in the previous elections characterised by pre-poll violence, this time around insurgency has subsided to a great extent, understandable because the main troublemaker, the Nation¬al Liberation Front of Tripura (Jamatiya faction), is observing a truce with the Centre since 2005. But last November it was re¬ported that a new outfit, Borak National Commando of Tripura, was trying to make its presence felt and could create trouble.
For the first time, perhaps, the Election Commission will send a large number of micro-observers, in addition to the gener¬al lot, to oversee polling in all the three states.
In Meghalaya, which goes to the poll on March 3, the two major national parties, the Congress and the BJP, are trying to woo the electorate with visual treat. They will not only have the darshan of Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi but also some former Bollywood stars.
The BJP, which is trying to improve on its tally of two in the assembly, is sending Shatrughan Sinha, Dharmendra, Hema Malini and Vinod Khanna for election campaigns. And there will be L.K. Advani and BJP chief Rajnath Singh as well.
Interestingly, the Samajwadi Party is making its debut in the Meghalaya poll - not that it has a chance of winning but perhaps to make its presence felt as a national party. Its star attractions obviously will be the crowd-pulling Aishwariya Bach¬han, her husband and the redoubtable Amitabh Bachchan and Amar Singh. Whether their presence and rhetoric will make any substan¬tial difference remains to be seen because elections in tribal states are won and lost on petty local issues, clan attachments and candidates’ individual clout.
To ensure that polls are free of rigging, booth-capturing and such malpractices, hundreds of polling centres have been declared hyper-sensitive and sensitive. According to the poll panel, this has been done to instill confidence among the “weaker and disadvantaged sections”.
In Nagaland, now under President’s Rule, elections are likely to be fair and peaceful provided the warring NSCN groups do not meddle. In the 2003 elections it was largely because of the NSCN(IM)’s proxyism that the regional Nagaland People’s Front came to power, ending SC Jamir’s Congress “puppet rule”, as they described it. But for NSCN(IM) help, the BJP could not have been able to send as many as six MLAs to the assembly. The quid pro quo then was that the NSCN(IM) would lend support to the BJP and it, in turn, would help achieve its goal of “Greater Nagaland”. At the fag end of its rule, AB Vajpayee left the rebel leaders in the lurch by saying the question of one administrative unit for Nagas had be decided by the peoples of Assam, Manipur and Arun¬achal Pradesh.
NSCN-IM rejects NSCN-K unity call
The Naga militant outfit, NSCN-K on Jan. 9 gave a call for broadbased unity among Nagas and a halt to fraticidal strife ~ something its rival NSCN-IM rejected. In a joint statement, the NSCN(K) collective leadership, chairman SS Khaplang, general secretary N Kitivi Zhimomi and armed wing chief Kholi Konyak, said the task of unification was a step towards stopping bloodshed and instill a sense of hope. Unification should not be jeopardised by ulterior motives and called upon Nagas to uphold the sacred cause, it said.
On the other hand, NSCN-IM rejected the unification process initiated by its defectors led by Azheto Chophy, charging the NSCN (Unification camp) with extortion and kidnapping for ransom in Dimapur town in the name of Naga unification. Under leadership of Azheto Chophi, NSCN (IM) cadres joined hands with NSCN-K and formed the NSCN (Unification Camp) in November last year to unite warring Naga underground groups.
Since then, both sides have traded charges of kidnappings and extortion with the NSCN (IM) of late asking law enforcing agencies to rein in members of NSCN (Unification Camp).
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