Setting a date with the State : BJP readying to take on Cong
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 08 2016 -

Early days yet but this has not stopped the BJP from putting its foot forward for the Assembly election scheduled in the early part of next year.

It is along this line that BJP National president Amit Shah has set a date with the State sometime in September to chalk out the poll strategy ahead of the Assembly election.

Nothing surprising here, for if there is a party that can dislodge the Congress here, then it is obviously the BJP which is best placed to do that.

After the BJP swept the Lok Sabha election in 2014 and with Narendra Modi riding a wave, the party has been going from strength to strength sweeping aside the Congress.

The only set back it faced was the Delhi Assembly election when the AAP romped home comfortably.

Making things uneasy for the Congress here will obviously be the manner in which the BJP swept aside the Congress in Assam making it the first North East State to have a BJP Government.

Himanta Kumar Biswa may have said that there will be no pre-poll arrangement with the Naga People’s Front for the Assembly election here in 2017, but this does not negate the possibility of the two parties coming to some sort of an understanding.

Remember how NPF leaders from Nagaland campaigned for the BJP in the run up to the Assembly election in Assam.

The BJP may have just two MLAs in the House of 60 but important to note that the two BJP MLAs were elected in mid term polls.

This meant that the two BJP candidates, one from Thangmeiband AC and the other from Thongju AC, were practically up against the State Government.

This is what is remarkable for while the official line may be that the two Congress candidates were defeated, in a way this also meant a defeat for the Congress Government here.

It is this which must have spurred the BJP to go on the offensive and gear up for the next Assembly election.

Early days yet, no doubt, but the manner in which the BJP has started arranging its house ahead of the polls is significant.

Amit Shah may not be a vote catcher here, but the seriousness of the party can be seen from the announcement that he is scheduled to arrive here in September to discuss poll strategies.

On the other hand nothing much has been heard from the AICC.

So come 2017 it will be a fight between the Congress and the BJP while the NPF will have a big say in the Naga dominated districts.

2017 is certainly going to be a significant year.