How strident Hindutva dented BJP and allies in the North East

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s footprint has shrunk in the North East. The party and its allies have lost all six seats it contested in Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram – even though the four tribal hill states are governed either by the party or its allies.

Of the 25 seats in North East, the alliance picked up 16 compared to 19 in the 2019 election.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, however, held on to its ground in Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura, winning two seats in both states, as it had in 2019. In Assam, it increased its tally by two seats to win 11, with BJP picking up nine seats.

Observers attribute the loss to the BJP’s failure in containing the Manipur ethnic conflict, the fencing of the Indo-Myanmar border, the party’s anti-minority rhetoric and voters’ discomfort with the party’s Hindutva agenda. The party, they said, did not do enough to counter the perception that it was hostile to Christians.

Indeed, after the results, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma blamed religious sentiments for the alliance’s defeats in Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya.

“A particular religion openly went against the NDA in those areas,” he said. “That religion has tremendous followers. That made the difference.”

Nagaland and Meghalaya are predominantly Christian...

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