BJP, allies to win 20 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Northeast, says party leader

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies are expected to win around 20 out of 25 parliamentary seats in the eight northeastern states in the next polls, a senior party functionary has said. At present, the BJP and its allies have 11 seats in the region, out of which seven are from Assam.

In the Lok Sabha election slated for early next year, the BJP is confident of winning seats in states where it had earlier lacked representation, the senior leader, who looks after party affairs in the region, said.

Since the last parliamentary election in 2014, the party has won assembly polls in two states -- in Assam and Tripura -- on its own.

Besides Mizoram, the seven other northeastern states are today governed by the BJP or its allies. This will also reflect in next year's parliamentary election, the BJP leader said.

Elaborating further, he said as per their surveys, the BJP is likely to win all parliamentary constituencies in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura, having two seats each.

In 2014, the party won only one seat in Arunachal Pradesh and drew blank in the rest. Besides, the BJP is also expected to increase its tally in Assam to nine, another party leader who is deputed in the region said.

He further said one seat each is expected from the party's allies in Nagaland, Mizoram and Assam.

Sikkim is governed by the party's ally Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), while in Meghalaya the party shares power with the National People's Party of Conrad Sangma.

The BJP leaders underlined that the party has succeeded in convincing the Christians, who are in majority in some northeastern states, that it is not against them.

One of the leaders acknowledged that the work of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) -- the BJP's ideological fountainhead -- and its affiliates in this region also helped the party in its expansion.