The BJP-NPP alliance is Meghalaya’s most toxic political relationship

I have been in toxic relationships before, and therefore I can recognise one when I see it. Perhaps the most toxic political relationship in Meghalaya today is the one between the BJP and the NPP.

After the BJP’s victories in West Bengal and Assam, leaders of the BJP Meghalaya unit confidently declared that the party would form the government in Meghalaya in 2028. The statement prompted cabinet minister Wailadmiki Shylla of the NPP-led MDA government to caution that electoral success in Bengal and Assam would not automatically translate into victory in Meghalaya. On that point, he is absolutely right.

While illegal immigration is perceived as a major concern across all three states, the nature of the anxiety differs significantly.

In Assam and Bengal, Bengali Muslims are projected as the primary threat. In Meghalaya, however, the concern extends broadly to all non-indigenous communities.

This creates a difficult political challenge for the BJP. To gain wider acceptance in Meghalaya, the party would need to adopt a genuinely inclusive and secular approach toward all communities and avoid the communal rhetoric associated with Hindutva politics. Yet recent developments suggest the opposite.

After winning the Nandigram seat, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari publicly claimed that Muslim votes had gone entirely to the TMC and that he would therefore work only for Hindus.

Such statements reinforce the perception among many in Meghalaya that the BJP remains fundamentally tied to Hindutva — the idea of India as an overtly Hindu state.

The unease is not limited to Muslims alone. Senior Meghalaya BJP leader Alexander Laloo Hek himself raised concerns over the Foreign Contribution Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which many Christian organisations viewed as unfairly targeting Christian-led institutions.

This distrust became evident during the 2023 Meghalaya Assembly elections.

When BJP spokesperson Mariahom Kharkrang surged ahead in the early counting rounds in North Shillong — a constituency often seen as a stronghold of Khasi nationalism — commentators openly expressed anxiety over the possibility of a BJP victory there. Eventually, Khasi votes consolidated behind Adelbert Nongrum, who narrowly won the seat.

A year later, the Voice of the People Party (VPP) swept the Shillong Lok Sabha seat with 55% of the vote. Most of those voters supported the VPP because it projected itself as the latest regional vehicle for “jaidbynriew politics” — the politics of protecting indigenous Khasi identity and interests.

The reservation policy agitation further strengthened that image.

However, the VPP has recently created the impression that it is retreating from the issue. Its refusal to attend the recent all-party meeting on the reservation policy report raised questions about its consistency.

The party continues demanding reservation based on population ratio while simultaneously accepting the status quo regarding the Garo share — a position that appears politically contradictory.

But identity politics rarely operates on logic alone. It thrives on emotion.

Many Khasi voters who supported the VPP may still continue backing the party because they see it as the strongest defender of Khasi interests against outsiders. The narrative that “Khasis are in danger” functions in much the same emotional way as the slogan that “Hindus are in danger.”

Can the BJP realistically hope to absorb such voters while simultaneously being associated with attempts to transform places like Mawjymbuin Cave into Hindu religious tourism sites?

The BJP’s victories in Assam and Bengal were also shaped by factors that may not easily replicate in Meghalaya. Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercises, delimitation and demographic politics played major roles in those elections.

At the same time, anti-incumbency and governance failures also contributed to the outcomes. In Assam, many Congress winners were Muslims, which allowed the BJP to reinforce its narrative that Congress protects illegal immigration.

To emerge as a dominant force in Meghalaya, however, the BJP would need to reinvent itself as a pro-jaidbynriew party that treats virtually all non-indigenous groups as demographic threats. Whether such a transformation is possible remains doubtful.

Meanwhile, some voters who feel disappointed with the VPP over reservation issues may also be uneasy about the party’s perceived heavy-handedness in the Hima Sohra succession controversy.

These voters could drift toward the Congress or the NPP in the upcoming by-election, especially after the announcement of D Rockyer Lyngdoh Nonglait — a respected academic and president of the Khasi Authors’ Society — as a candidate.

In Garo Hills too, the BJP faces limitations. The recent restriction on non-indigenous candidates contesting ADC elections is seen by many as the personal achievement of Bernard Marak rather than the success of the BJP organisation itself.

For the BJP to seriously aspire to power in Meghalaya, it would therefore need strong performances in the upcoming GHADC elections and the Shillong Lok Sabha by-poll.

Yet there is another route to power — one the BJP has repeatedly used elsewhere in India.

Defections.

The BJP’s political growth in several states has often relied less on electoral expansion and more on engineering splits within rival parties and cannibalising alliance partners.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was once a Congress leader. Suvendu Adhikari himself defected from the TMC before becoming Bengal Chief Minister. The BJP’s expansion strategy has frequently depended on absorbing influential opposition figures after corruption allegations or political disagreements weaken them.

The same possibility exists in Meghalaya.

The BJP currently holds only two seats in the Assembly. But if it cannot grow electorally, it may attempt to grow politically by persuading legislators from rival parties to cross over.

Its biggest target could eventually become its own ally — the NPP.

Not long ago, Union Home Minister Amit Shah described the NPP-led Meghalaya government as among the most corrupt in the country. Because the remarks were delivered in Hindi rather than Khasi or Garo, many in Meghalaya may not have fully grasped the political implications of what was said.

But the statement raises an uncomfortable question. If the BJP leadership truly believes the NPP government is deeply corrupt, why does the alliance continue?

Either the allegations were genuine, in which case the BJP possesses potentially damaging political ammunition, or they were merely election rhetoric — a “jumla.”

If the BJP believes the allegations are credible, it could eventually use them to engineer defections within the NPP itself, much as it has done with other allies and rivals elsewhere in India.

That is why the BJP-NPP alliance increasingly resembles a toxic relationship. They remain together in government, yet one partner constantly undermines, humiliates and threatens the other.

Otherwise, why would a party publicly declare that it intends to form the government on its own while still sitting inside the same coalition?

Views expressed are that of the author and do not reflect EasMojo’s stance on this or any other matter.

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