PM reaches out to his Northeast helmsmen

GUWAHATI: Soon after BJP managed to revive its 'Mahagathbandhan' in the northeast by bringing Asom Gana Parishad back into the NDA fold, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to chief ministers of the northeastern states.



"Dear @sarbanandsonwal, @himantabiswa, @SangmaConrad and @Neiphiu_Rio, I request you to work towards increasing vote awareness in the Northeast. A vote is a powerful way for people to express and become active participants in India's growth trajectory," Modi tweeted on Wednesday morning.


BJP's key man in the region, Himanta Biswa Sarma, tweeted, "Dear Sir @narendramodi ~ Let me assure NorthEast is high on josh and since we believe it's 'apna time' for us, people are geared up to participate in this wonderful feast of

democracy

." He followed it up: "BJP, NPP, NDPP, AGP and BPF will fight together in Assam, Nagaland,

Meghalaya

, Manipur and

Arunachal Pradesh

. NEDA's intention and conviction is to contribute to Narendra Modi's second term as Prime Minister of India".

In 2014, BJP had won eight of the 25

Lok Sabha

seats in the region, seven in Assam and one in Arunachal Pradesh. At the time, the northeast mahagathbandhan, North East Democratic Alliance (Neda), was not in the picture. It was formed only after BJP swept the Assam assembly election in 2016.

BJP

general

secretary Ram Madhav tweeted that this alliance has the "potential of winning not less than 22 of 25 seats in the region" soon after he chaired a Tuesday midnight meeting with chief ministers of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

The saffron party has not been able to arrive at any seat sharing deal in Meghalaya, helmed by National People's Party (NPP) president Conrad Sangma, who is unwilling to part with either of the two parliamentary seats. "A complete seat sharing was not possible with NPP. There will be some constituencies where we will have friendly fights," Sarma said.

Madhav is holding discussions with the party's Tripura ally, Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), separately. "While the Opposition is still talking and talking about 'Mahagatbandhan' (grand alliance), we already have ours in place in the North East and the rest of the country. The NDA is a much stronger coalition today than before," Madhav posted on Facebook.