North East Polls: BJP Opens Account Even Before First Vote Is Cast In Nagaland And Arunachal Pradesh

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is off to a promising start in the forthcoming assembly elections and by-elections in the North East.

The saffron party bagged two seats — one each in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh — after its nominees were elected unopposed.

At the end of the last date for nominations for elections in Nagaland and by-polls to the lone assembly seat in Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday (7 February), two BJP candidates found themselves to be the only candidates in the fray and were thus formally declared elected unopposed on Friday (10 February).

The BJP’s Kazheto Kinimi was declared elected unopposed from the Akuluto Assembly seat in central Nagaland’s Zunheboto district. Elections to the remaining 59 seats of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly will be held on 27 February.

Nagaland BJP president Temjen Ima Along tweeted his congratulations and attributed the development to Kinimi’s “hard work and dedication to his constituency”.

In Arunachal Pradesh, the widow of the former MLA from Lumla in the state’s northwestern district of Tawang was elected unopposed from the same seat. The by-poll was necessitated by the death of BJP MLA Jambey Tashi, who was very popular. The MLA was a cousin of Chief Minister Pema Khandu.

The BJP nominated Tashi’s widow Tsering Lhamu from the seat. In Lumla, too, local people and a number of apolitical organisations had appealed to the other political parties not to field any candidate against the BJP nominee.

But the lone regional party in the state — the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA) nominated a village headman to put up a fight against Lhamu. That candidate, however, withdrew his nomination in favour of Lhamu in deference to the wishes of the local people.

Elections to the 60-member Tripura Legislative Assembly will be held on 16 February, followed by elections to the Nagaland and Meghalaya Assemblies on 7 February. Votes will be counted on 2 March.