Guwahati: The Congress appeared to be losing grip of its old bastion — Northeast — where BJP and its allies made inroads even as the Left firmed its hold in Tripura winning both the seats in the state.
Wherever the Congress has won, the margins have either been very narrow or drastically cut down as compared to previous elections.
While the Congress tally came down from seven seats to three in Assam, the BJP candidates emerged as giant killers defeating two union ministers and a former union minister as it bagged seven seats.
The AIUDF increased in tally from one to three seats, indicating an increased polarization of votes.
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio of the ruling Naga People’s Front won the state’s lone Lok Sabha seat defeating his Congress rival, KV Pusa, by 4 lakh votes.
The Arunachal West seat was won by former MP Kiren Rijiju for BJP who defeated vocal sitting MP Takam Sanjoy of the Congress by 33,000 votes.
Union minister Ninong Ering managed to retain the Arunachal East seat, defeating BJP’s Tapir Gao by just 15,000 votes. The Congress also managed to retain the two seats in Manipur and the lone seat in Mizoram.
Dr. Thokchon Meinya defeated CPI’s Dr. M Nara by 94000 votes in the Inner Manipur seat.
In the outer Manipur seat, sitting MP Tahangso Baite got jitters from the Nagaland People’s Front candidate Soso Lorho who was defeated by just 15000 votes.
In the lone Mizoram seat, sitting MP C.L. Ruala just managed to retain his constituency defeating independent candidate R.R. Royte by just 6,000 votes.
Though his margin of defeat declined, former union minister Congress’ Vincent Pala defeated his nearest Independent rival PBM Basaiawmoint by 40,000 votes in the Shillong seat.
The Congress suffered a major defeat in Meghalaya’s Tura seat, which was known to be an emerging bastion of Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma.
Former Lok Sabha speaker PA Sangma, an eleven-time MP, returned to parliamentary politics defeating Congress’ Daryl William Momin by 39,000 votes.
PA Sangma had pledged support to BJP.
The seat was held by Agatha Sangma, PA Sangma’s daughter. Sangma had recently floated his own party Nationalist People’s Party, which, however, had suffered a humiliating defeat in the assembly elections of 2013.
Both the ruling CPI(M) candidates Jitendra Choudhury and Shankar Prasad Dutta won by huge margins of nearly 5 lakhs in Tripura.
The Congress candidates were distant second in both seats. (UNI)
