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Beyond BJP’s rise, NPP emerges as biggest regional outfit in northeast
The National People’s Party (NPP) candidate Nazia Yasmin Mazumdar grabbed eyeballs, for, despite the BJP’s amazing rise and the Congress’ sharp decline in the past three years, it is the regional party that has emerged as the biggest player across the seven states in the northeast.
When Silchar in Assam voted on Thursday, all eyes were trained on the fight between sitting Congress lawmaker Sushmita Deb and the BJP’s Rajdeep since both parties have wrested the seat several times in the past decades.
Yet, the National People’s Party (NPP) candidate Nazia Yasmin Mazumdar grabbed eyeballs, for, despite the BJP’s amazing rise and the Congress’ sharp decline in the past three years, it is the regional party that has emerged as the biggest player across the seven states in the northeast.
And what’s more: the former Congress general secretary Mazumdar is upbeat and confident about beating rivals even from established national parties.
“I got a lot of support from the rural belt, “ Mazumdar told HT.
“Over the past three decades, both the BJP and the Congress indulged in divisive politics and didn’t develop the Barak valley. I have tried my level best to reach out and convince voters and am confident of a good show,” he said.
The NPP gaining such clout is not without irony since it is one of many regional parties that are part of the anti-Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) and has yet charted its own course across the region.
It has fielded candidates in 11 of the 25 Lok Sabha (LS) seats of the northeast. Besides its home-turf and stronghold of Meghalaya, the NPP has floated contestants in Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram. Tripura was the only state not on the agenda for these elections, but it is only a matter of time.
“We have the desire to expand our wings across the northeast. We have our limitations in being a party that is relatively new. We tried to reach out to Tripura. It was very difficult to reach out to Tripura for logistical and tactical reasons. But it’ll take time for us to expand everywhere,” said NPP president Conrad Sangma.
The NPP’s rapid rise would have been thrilling for founder PA Sangma. The former Congressman and LS speaker had formed the NPP in 2012 with a definitive purpose in mind.
“Sangma wanted the consolidation of tribal constituents. He wanted to make the NPP a tribal party with a national presence. And if he had lived longer, it would have materialised by now,” said the editor of The Shillong Times, Patricia Mukhim.
In 2013, the party which had joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured barely 9% of the total votes and just two seats in the Meghalaya assembly polls. In 2017, the NPP won four assembly seats in Manipur and helped the BJP for its first government in that state.
By 2018, the NPP’s vote share in Meghalaya increased to over 20%. It won 19 seats of Meghalaya’s 60-member assembly, the NPP was able to form the current government headed by NPP chief – and the late PA Sangma’s second son Conrad – with support from other regional players but also the BJP. In the Nagaland assembly polls last year, the NPP with two seats joined the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP)-BJP coalition government.
After the senior Sangma’s death in 2016, the party’s mantle passed to his second son Conrad K Sangma, who along with his older brother James and sister Agatha, has been able to strengthen the NPP and expand its presence across the region.
Ironically, it is the BJP’s determination to push through the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) despite near-unanimous opposition across the northeast, that came as a blessing in disguise for the NPP because the regional party’s fierce campaign against the proposed law rapidly made it a household name in all seven states.
So unified was the northeast against the controversial bill that envisages Indian citizenship to all minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan but excludes Muslims that ten regional parties – many of whom were BJP allies – were persuaded by the Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma to come together on one platform and oppose CAB together.
It is this pan-northeast narrative that attracts many voters to the NPP.
“People like the NPP because they feel it is a northeast party, unlike Congress, and there are many people who are unsympathetic to the BJP. They see NPP as kind of a neutral party. Within the power, but separate from the BJP,” said Taba Ajum, editor of The Arunachal Times.
For the first time Meghalaya voter David Thangkhiew, the NPP is appealing as unlike bigger parties like the Congress and BJP, the regional outfit is genuinely concerned about issues in the region.
“The NPP may not be able to produce magic so soon but it is slowly building its base in the region,” he said.
Conrad Sangma is clear on the NPP’s goals.
“Our mission and focus have been simple – we want to touch the lives of our people and work for the people. We want to become a platform for the people of the northeast to voice their concerns in Parliament,” he said.
His older brother and Meghalaya home minister James Sangma says that the NPP has complete faith in the CM’s leadership.
“Conrad has been active in politics from his early childhood. He used to travel with our late father when he was only 12 years old. He is meticulous in his actions and does his job with perfection,” James said.
Conrad also has the backing of sister Agatha, a former Union minister who is the party’s candidate from the Tura seat in Meghalaya which was once represented by her brother Conrad and several times by her father PA Sangma.
“All the other so-called regional parties are state-centric. The NPP is now stepping into that void. The party spearheaded and coordinated the protests against the CAB which served as a rallying force,” said political analyst and former minister Robert G Lyngdoh.
The BJP admitted that the NPP has become a force to reckon with across the northeast, due to its many successes at assembly polls but dismisses its chances in the Lok Sabha elections.
“The NPP won’t make a big impact this time,” the BJP’s spokesperson in Assam Rupam Goswami said.
