Battle Lines Congress, BJP, Sangma — are battling for top honours in the North-East. All the three are early starters for a battle, which is long away. Will they loose steam when the bugle is sounded?

THE D day may be still at a distance. But both the Congress and the BJP have already started positioning their queens, bishops, knights and rocks on the northeast chess board. At stake are 25 Lok Sabha seats. They can ill afford to ignore, especially in this coalition era. ‘Now or never’- is the Congress slogan to save its bastion from the BJP onslaught. ‘Halt BJP’ was war cry at the Shillong meet of the North East Congress Coordination Committee (NECCC). BJP’s campaign on the other hand, is more down to earth - Gaon Chalo Ghar Ghar Chalo (go to village, go house to house). It will continue till December end as the first step in a carefully crafted mass contact programme in the run up to the 2004 ballot. To say the Congress is panicky is to say the obvious after what had happened in Arunachal and earlier in Nagaland.

The mood in the BJP camp is naturally upbeat as the going was never so good for the Parivar in these parts of the country. It has two governments in Itanagar and Kohima. And is roaring for more! eys. So its resolution at the Shillong meet was at it rhetoric best when it said: “Show honest political will to bring all extremist groups to the negotiating table. Chalk out practical implementable ground rules by all parties to ceasefire prevails in the real sense.” It cautioned the government that no insurgent outfits should be allowed to take advantage of “political patronage” as a result of any ceasefire deal and further their “expansionist policies”. The emergence of NSCN (IM) as an umbrella organisation was giving “fresh impetus and encouragement” to different extremist groups in the region, it alleged. “This was an early warning signal of the clock being put back The Centre and other national parties should desist from the dangers of creating Frankensteins,” it said. The NECCC also felt that the BJP for “short term political gains” had aligned with “secessionist organisations” to ensure defeat of Congress in Nagaland and topple the democratically elected Mukut Mithi government in Arunachal Pradesh. “A national political party indulging in such short-sighted moves sent wrong signal to the people and also encouraged secessionist elements. This was more alarming when China disputed Arunachal’s integrity with India,” it said.

The BJP is not at all nervous while taking the Congress head on. It has said that the Congress

is always taking anti-people stand and therefore is fast loosing its hold over the people in general and North-East in particular. “The party is opposed to repeal of controversial IM (DT) Act; it has been supporting infiltration from across the border in order to garner minority votes; it has failed to make any headway as far as bringing peace to the North-East; it always opposed the issues concerning the national sentiment”, says Satish BJP leader alleged.

He also criticised the Congress for gross misuse of government funds during its 47-years rule in the country. “Due to the misrule of Congress, under development, unemployment, separatist tendencies have come up in the North-East”.

The BJP has a definite game plan too. To win as many seats possible from the region, BJP will be targeting new and young voters with conferences to be held especially for them. There will be workshops and other programmes for legislators and would be nominees.

The Congress is also working on a strategy to halt the BJP juggernaut towards the North-Eastern States. Outgoing NECCC chairman and former Nagaland Chief Minister S C Jamir appealed first to all the party workers in the this region to work hard and defeat the design and game plan of the BJP.

Jamir said the party’s eyes opened when the Assembly election of Nagaland was held last February and the recent political development in Arunachal Pradesh. He said the “sinister design” of the BJP needed to be thwarted in the interest of people throughout the country. Jamir alleged that the recent peace bonus given by New Delhi to Nagaland was basically given to the anti national forces as they supported the BJP to come to power in the State

The former Nagaland chief minister said that the “communal” forces had no place in the North-East and turned down the apprehension created by the BJP regarding different faiths in the region, adding Christianity had been here for the past two centuries and the BJP should not have anything to do with it.

“About two hundred years ago Christianity came to us from across the sea and opened our eyes to show that we are no longer backward and we are as much as any other citizen of the country,” Jamir observed. Touching upon insurgency, Jamir said peace talk is always welcome if it brings peace, but the present peace process has not achieved anything so far.

Mohsina Kidwai, AICC General Secretary, and in-charge of Assam, appealed to the Congress workers and leaders to work unitedly to fight back the sinister design of communal forces and work for economic uplift of the downtrodden.

Meghalaya Chief Minister D D Lapang said the Congress must face the challenges to overcome the development in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and elsewhere. He said none could deny the efforts of the Congress for all round development of the region.

Senior leader Pranab Mukherjee lambasted the BJP for trying to utilise the gun power of the insurgent outfits for coming to power in some states of the region. He said that the BJP had evidently used militant force to come to power in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

The senior congress leaders also alleged that there was growing proof that the BJP was trying similar methods to overthrow other Congress led governments in the North-East. Quite interestingly, Mukherjee said that the BJP was unnecessarily blaming the Pakistan’s ISI for all militancy in the region forgetting that the party was also supporting a similar cause.

Unfazed by Shillong show of Congress unity, the BJP is now giving final touches to the visit of Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani and party president M Venkaiah Naidu on October 11. The Prime Minister is also likely to visit the region soon and to launch mobile phone services and announce new schemes.

BJP has also warned the party not to try to play the religious card as the people had already rejected their designs. There were Christian BJP ministers in Nagaland who had already understood the false propaganda of the Congress, the BJP remarked. “Labelling us as communal is uncalled for. Such statements only show the hollowness of the Congress’s understanding the people and their commitment towards the development of the region,”

Giving a new twist to the unfolding electoral battle, Purno Sangma has formed a non-Congress, non-Left platform -North East Peoples Forum (NEPF). Clearly the Congress is disturbed. But the BJP is expressing its unconcealed glee at the formation of the new forum.

Satish said that BJP has welcomed the idea of issue-based Forum, which will protect the interest of the North-east and will also strengthen the hands of the NDA Government at the Centre.

“Common issues like illegal infiltration and insurgency demand united action among the like minded parties,” he said. All in all, there is every indication that the next electoral battle in the North-East will be an all absorbing one. Who will win: the Congress with its rear guard action to retain its bastion or the saffron party with a new found determination to spread its wings beyond the chicken’s neck?

What will be the Sangma & NEPF factor?

One thing can be said as of now. Congress, BJP, and Sangma locked in a three-legged race for the top honours. All the three are early starters for a battle which is long away. Will they loose steam when the bugle is sounded? We will  know soon.