Meghalaya is heading towards a split verdict unless the NDA allies the National People’s Party (NPP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) join hands, India Today-Axis My India exit poll has predicted.
According to the exit poll, the NPP could bag anywhere between 18-24 seats, the BJP could bag 4-8 votes, the TMC, which did not open its account in 2018 could bag 5-9 seats, the UDP could bag up to 8-12 seats and the Congress, which was the single-largest party in 2018, could bag 6-12 seats. Others could bag anywhere between 4-8 seats.
It must be noted that the current government in Meghalaya, called the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance, consists of the NPP, the BJP, the UDP and the HSDP along with a few independent candidates.
Meghalaya is witnessing a quadrangular battle between the National People’s Party (NPP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Congress.
The Trinamool Congress, under the leadership of Dr Mukul Sangma–the former Congress leader and three-time Chief Minister, has emerged as the principal opposition party after 12 of the 17 Congress MLAs joined the TMC in 2021. The remaining five also quit the Grand Old Party leaving the party with zero MLAs.
Interestingly, although the BJP and NPP are allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA), they have been going hammer and tongs at each other in the run up to the elections, with the BJP leaving no stone unturned in blaming the NPP for all of Meghalaya’s issues.
In fact, such is the animosity among the two parties that the BJP has fielded Bernard Marak, arguably the party’s biggest leader in Garo Hills, against CM Conrad Sangma.
That said, in an interview with EastMojo Editor-in-chief Karma Paljor, Sangma did not rule out an alliance with the BJP post elections.
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