Congress forms North East panel to counter BJP

GUWAHATI: The Congress in Northeast India appears to be following the lead of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in creating a coordinating layer of management that would include party leaders from the Seven Sisters.

The North East Congress Coordination Committee (NECCC), a platform for Congress leaders from the region, is the Grand Old Party’s answer to the Northeast Democratic Alliance (NEDA) headed by the BJP.

NEDA has played a crucial role in strengthening the BJP’s presence in a traditionally weak region for the party. NECCC leaders, including Congress chief ministers, are preparing a roadmap for countering the growth of the BJP in the region.


A meeting of the NECCC will be held in the poll-bound Meghalaya by end of this month, and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is expected to tour the region soon.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma is also the convenor of the NECCC. Northeast India has traditionally been a Congress bastion. But since the 2014 general elections, the Congress has lost polls in Assam, and Manipur, while defection in the party allowed the BJP to form the government in Arunachal Pradesh.

Nagaland, too, is ruled by the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN), a combine in which the BJP is a partner. The BJP has also made deep inroads in the Congressruled Meghalaya, and the Marxist citadel of Tripura.