This story is from May 18, 2018

LS polls: BJP ready to lay groundwork

After expanding its footprint in the northeast over the past two years, BJP is ready to lay the groundwork for the 2019 Lok Sabha election in the region, where 25 seats are up for grabs.
LS polls: BJP ready to lay groundwork
Amit Shah
GUWAHATI: After expanding its footprint in the northeast over the past two years, BJP is ready to lay the groundwork for the 2019 Lok Sabha election in the region, where 25 seats are up for grabs. Only this time, the saffron party will put to use the North East Democratic Alliance (Neda) - a conglomerate of regional parties of the northeast - that it put together with a 'Congress-mukt northeast' agenda after its 2016 victory in Assam.

BJP president Amit Shah is scheduled to address the leaders of the 13 regional parties from the eight northeastern states that constitute Neda at its third convention here on May 20. All Neda members, with the exception of the Mizo National Front, are in power in collaboration with BJP in their respective states. Congress-ruled Mizoram will go to the polls in December. "The four-year-old Narendra Modi government has done several times more work in the northeast than the Congress had in 65 years," Shah said on Thursday, adding that BJP and its allies would capture power in all eight states.
"The meeting on May 20 will chalk out a detailed roadmap for BJP and its allies for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Amit Shah will give the necessary directions regarding preparations for the polls," president of the state unit of BJP, Ranjeet Dass, said.
In 2014, the NDA had won 11 Lok Sabha seats in the northeast. BJP on its own had won seven in Assam and one in Arunachal Pradesh. Its allies Naga People's Front (NPF) and Sikkim Democratic Front had won a seat each. NPF, however, left Neda after the Nagaland assembly election earlier this year, where it contested against BJP and its new ally Nationalist Democratic Democratic Party.
Neda's second conclave in Delhi in September last year - six months before elections in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya - had reiterated its objective of setting up a 'Congress-mukt northeast'. Shah, in his last visit to the state last month, set a target of 21 Lok Sabha seats for the party workers.
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About the Author
Prabin Kalita

Prabin Kalita is a journalist at The Times of India and is currently the Chief of Bureau (northeast). He has been reporting in mainstream Indian national media since 2001. He has been a field journalist reporting gamut of issues from India’s northeastern region and major developments in neighbouring countries like Myanmar, China, Bhutan and Bangladesh concerning India and northeastern region. He has been covering insurgency—internal and cross-border, politics, natural calamities, environment etc. He is a post-graduate in Geological Sciences from Gauhati University.

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