New Delhi (TIP)- The 2023 assembly elections season kicked off on Wednesday, January 18,  as the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the poll schedule for Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland next month, setting the stage for a fierce political battle in India’s northeast. Voting for assembly elections in Tripura will be held in a single phase on February 16, and in Nagaland and Meghalaya on February 27. The results will be declared on March 2, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said during a press conference. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is part of the ruling coalition in all three states, which all have 60 seats in the assembly. The Commission, led by CEC Kumar, and election commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel, appealed to all the voters to participate in the “festival of democracy”. “I urge all the voters to cast their ballot and be a part of this festival of democracy,” Kumar said while announcing the dates at the press conference. “The Commission is making all efforts to conduct an inclusive election.”

The announcement marks the beginning of a packed assembly elections schedule in 2023, which will see polls in nine states in addition to possible elections in Jammu & Kashmir. The three states that go to the polls in February may be small – with one Lok Sabha and six assembly seats — but are likely to see pitched political contests, especially in Tripura and Meghalaya, where the ruling coalitions appear uneasy.

January 30 will be the last date for nominations in Tripura, and February 7 for Meghalaya and Nagaland. The terms of Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Tripura assemblies are scheduled to end on March 12, 15, and 22 respectively. Each state has 60 constituencies, with 59 of them reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Nagaland, 55 in Meghalaya, and 20 in Tripura.

Kumar urged people to vote and be a part of the festival of democracy. ECI has set up 9,125 polling stations in the three states, where over 628,000 people are eligible to vote. Of these, 22,000 are first-time voters. Nearly 82% of the polling stations are in rural areas.

The poll body will webcast the polling process live from 73% polling stations. Kumar said ECI was committed to conducting free, fair, participative, and ethical elections. “There are only a few states where pre-poll and post-poll violence happens. The commission has spoken to the local authorities and all efforts will be made to ensure peaceful elections.”

About 100 companies of central paramilitary forces will be deployed in Tripura’s sensitive areas due to fears of an escalation in political violence before the assembly polls. “Based on the assessment of the ground situation, Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and State Armed Police (SAP) drawn from other States will be deployed during the elections. The CAPFs shall be deployed well in advance for area domination, route marches in vulnerable pockets, point patrolling and other confidence building measures to re-assure and build faith in the minds of the voters, especially those belonging to the weaker sections, minorities etc,” ECI said in a statement.

The political contest is likely to be the most heated in Tripura, where the BJP made history in 2018 by defeating the Left Front government after two decades. This time, the ruling alliance of BJP and Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura is facing an alliance of erstwhile rivals Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist, and a third key force in the form of the TIPRA Motha party, which is expected to do well in the tribal-dominated regions. The party, founded by former Congress leader Pradyot Bikram Deb Barma, who is also a member of the royal family, has yet not decided on whether he will go it alone, or ally with one of the two major coalitions. Deb Barma has kept his cards close to his chest, and said that he will go with the party that accepts in writing his party’s demand for separate state called Tipraland. The key to the election may be held in the 20 tribal-dominated seats in the state.

In Meghalaya, too, the ruling coalition of National People’s Party and the BJP appears to be under stress. Both parties have decided to fight the election separately, even as a third player, in the form of the Trinamool Congress, is trying to make inroads. TMC is led in the state by former chief minister Mukul Sangma, who left the Congress last year.               Source: HT