The Assembly elections for Tripura will take place on February 16, while Meghalaya and Nagaland will vote on February 27, the Election Commission announced on Wednesday. Votes will be counted in all the three northeastern states on March 2.
The term of the Nagaland Assembly ends on March 12, while the terms of Meghalaya and Tripura Assemblies end on March 15 and March 22, respectively. The three state Assemblies have a strength of 60 members each.
In Nagaland, the Bharatiya Janata Party is a part of the ruling coalition with the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party.
In Meghalaya, Conrad Sangma of the National People’s Party became the chief minister in 2018. His party had formed alliances with regional parties and the BJP. However, last month two of National People’s Party legislators joined the BJP months after Sangma had announced that his party would contest the elections alone.
On Wednesday, Meghalaya Cabinet Minister Renikton Tongkhar and four other MLAs also resigned from the Assembly hours before the Election Commission announced the polling dates, reported PTI. Trinamool Congress MLA Shitlang Pale, suspended Congress MLAs Mayralborn Syiem and PT Sawkmie along with Independent MLA Lambor Malngiang resigned from their posts.
In Tripura, the BJP had won a comfortable majority in the 2018 Assembly elections by dismantling the Left Front government of 25 years. Last week, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Congress announced that the two parties will contest the upcoming elections in an alliance.
Meanwhile, the poll panel will also conduct bye-elections on February 27 for one Assembly constituency each in Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The same day, bye-elections for two Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra will take place.
The poll panel will conduct bye-election for one parliamentary constituency in Lakshadweep too.
Counting of votes for all the bye-elections will also take place on March 2.
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