The Congress's resurgence has been the standout feature of Mandate 2024 in the Northeast, which comprises 25 Lok Sabha constituencies.
Victories in Assam’s Dhubri, the two constituencies in Manipur, the Tura seat in Meghalaya, and Nagaland have marked a significant comeback for the party. Congress won seven seats across four states, three more than its tally across Assam and Meghalaya five years ago.
Once the dominant national party, Congress has not been in power in any of the eight states in the Northeast since 2018, when it lost to the National People’s Party (NPP)-led alliance in Meghalaya and the Mizo National Front (MNF) in Mizoram.
Led by the BJP with 14 seats — nine in Assam, two each in Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura, and one in Manipur — the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 19 seats in 2019. Congress won four and non-aligned candidates secured two.
This time, the BJP equalled its tally in Assam, Arunachal, and Tripura but slipped in the Meitei-dominated Inner Manipur constituency. Angomcha Bimol Akoijam of Congress capitalized on the anger against the N. Biren Singh government for failing to address the bloody ethnic violence since May 2023.
The BJP’s key allies, NPP in Meghalaya, the Naga People’s Front in Manipur, and the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party in Nagaland, also faltered, failing to retain the Tura, Outer Manipur, and Nagaland seats respectively.
NDA ups tally in Assam
With the Asom Gana Parishad winning Barpeta, its first Lok Sabha seat in Assam since 2014, and the United People’s Party, Liberal winning the Kokrajhar seat, the NDA upped its tally in Assam from nine to 11.
However, its overall count in the Northeast – factoring in the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha’s seat in Sikkim – dropped to 15.
Congress, on the other hand, ended a losing streak of 25 years in Tura, 20 years in Nagaland, 15 years in Dhubri, and five years each in Inner Manipur and Outer Manipur.
In Outer Manipur, Congress candidate Alfred K.S. Arthur was allegedly intimidated and threatened by extremists.
Apart from upsetting the NPP applecart in Tura, Congress staged the biggest upset in Nagaland, where it had been wiped out after losing power in 2003.
One of the contributing factors is believed to be the boycott of the polls by the people of six districts of eastern Nagaland, comprising 20 Assembly segments, over the Centre’s failure to create the autonomous Frontier Nagaland Territory.
“People came to understand that a weak opposition is not good for them. They voted to save democracy and against the division of society on religious lines, apart from demonstrating that the minorities matter,” S. Supongmeren Jamir, Nagaland’s victorious Congress candidate, said.
Regional force emerges
The 2024 mandate 2024 also displays the potential of the Voice of the People Party (VPP), a party formed ahead of the 2023 Meghalaya Assembly polls, to become a regional force to reckon with.
Its candidate, Ricky Andrew J. Syngkon, prevented former Union Minister Vincent H. Pala of Congress from winning the Shillong seat for the fourth straight term.
“People wanted change and they entrusted us to pursue it in Parliament,” VPP president Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit said after Dr. Syngkon defeated Mr. Pala by 371,910 votes.
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