Northeastern parties forum reaffirms support to BJP

Shillong, May 13 (IANS) Eleven major regional parties under the banner of North East Regional Parties Forum (NERPF) Tuesday reaffirmed support to the BJP for the formation of the NDA-led government at the centre.

Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, who is also the NERPF convener, went into a huddle with top regional parties' leaders of northeastern states, including Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) chief Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, in Guwahati to deliberate on the performance of the regional parties in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections.

"We (NERPF) have reaffirmed our support to the BJP for the formation of the NDA-led government at the centre to ensure peace and economic development in the northeastern states," Rio told IANS over phone.

Rio, the chief architect of bringing together major regional parties under the banner of NERPF, exuded confidence that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance would return to the seat of power and continue to restore all developmental projects initiated by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"The constituents of the NERPF are also expected to win some seats in the region," said Rio, who himself is also confident on winning his maiden Lok Sabha elections from lone Nagaland parliamentary constituency.

The parties in the forum are Rio's Naga People's Front (NPF), AGP, Mizo National Front, Manipur People's Party, Manipur State Congress Party, Manipur Democratic People's Front, People's Party of Arunachal, Indigenous People's Front of Tripura, and Meghalaya's United Democratic Party, National People's Party, and the Hill State People's Democratic Party.

Of the 25 seats in the region (14 in Assam, two each in Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh and one each in Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim), Congress secured 13 in the last Lok Sabha polls in 2009 while the Bharatiya Janata Party got four seats.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) won Tripura's two seats, while one seat each was bagged by AGP, All India United Democratic Front and Bodo People's Front in Assam and the NPF and the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) secured the lone parliamentary seats from Nagaland and Sikkim respectively.

Congress is in power in Manipur, Mizoram, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya while the CPI-M-led Left Front rules Tripura. The NPF-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland is ruling in Nagaland and the SDF in Sikkim.