Gujarat polls over, Modi heads for Meghalaya as assembly elections beckon

Currently, Meghalaya has a Congress govt headed by Mukul Sangma

His grueling campaign in Gujarat over, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be heading to Meghalaya and Mizoram on Saturday. He will inaugurate infrastructure projects and also open a Bharatiya Janata Party office in Meghalaya. The two states are scheduled for assembly polls in the next 12-months.

Meghalaya, along with Nagaland and Tripura, is slated to go to polls by March, 2018. Mizoram assembly polls are scheduled for November-December 2018, along with Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. In between, Karnataka assembly polls are scheduled for April-May, 2018.

Currently, Meghalaya has a Congress government headed by Mukul Sangma. Mizoram also has a Congress government. It is led by PU Lalthanhawla.

Manik Sarkar leads the Communist Party of India (Marxist) government in Tripura. In Nagaland, TR Zeilang leads the Nagaland People’s Front (NPF) government. The NPF is an ally of the BJP at the Centre.

In the Northeast, the BJP currently has governments in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. It had none at the beginning of 2016.

On Friday, the union cabinet approved a new scheme for infrastructure development in the northeastern states with 100 per cent funding by the Centre. The scheme will focus on projects in water supply, power, connectivity, education and health sectors.

The union cabinet also approved the continuation of the existing Non Lapsable Central Pool of Resources scheme with funding pattern of 90:10 till March, 2020, with an outlay of Rs 5,300 crore for completing ongoing projects. In addition, the cabinet approved allocating Rs 264.67 crore to four industrial units in the region.

In a tweet, the PM said he would be dedicating the Tuirial Hydropower project to the nation in Aizawl on Saturday. “The completion of this project is a boon for the people of Mizoram,” he said. The PM said he will be distributing cheques to young entrepreneurs from the Rs 100 crore fund set up by his government for the purpose.

In Shillong, the PM will inaugurate the  hillong-Nongstoin-Rongjen-Tura road to improve connectivity in the region. Modi is also scheduled to address a public meeting and open a BJP office.