Election Commission announces schedule for Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland; results on 3 March

New Delhi, January 18: The Election Commission of India officially announced the schedule for assembly elections of North East states: Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland Assembly Elections 2018. While polling for assembly elections in Tripura will be held on 18 February, the states of Nagaland and Meghalaya will go to polls on 27 February. Counting for all three states will be held on 3 March. 

“Model code of conduct comes into force now in all three states of Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland,” said chief election commissioner Achal Kumar Joti during a media interaction to give details of the poll schedule. Elections will take place by using Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).

The terms of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura end on 6, 13 and 14 March, respectively. While Communist Party of India (Marxist) has been on knives of Bhartiya Janata Party BJP as the rally which was carried out assured of uprooting corrupt government led by Manik Sarkar. After taking Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP is looking to score victories in Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland. There are eight states in the north-east region Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.

The Congress is in power for the last eight years in Meghalaya. The Left Front led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) has been in power in Tripura since 1993.

Mukul Sangma's Congress government rules Meghalaya and in Nagaland, the Naga People's Front-led Democratic Alliance, backed by the BJP, is in power with TR Zeliang as Chief Minister.

Assembly elections in five more states are due this year Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. These elections are seen as critical ahead of the national polls next year.