Once a Cong bastion, N-E turns into a bleak house for the party

Guwahati/Agartala, April 3 The prospects of Congress, which once governed seven of the eight northeastern states, appear to be bleak ahead of the Assembly elections in four northeastern states next year, especially after the recent drubbing it faced in the Rajya Sabha elections in the region.

The elections for the two Rajya Sabha seats in Assam and one each in Tripura and Nagaland were held recently, and the Congress, considering its allies' strength, was expected to win one seat in Assam, but cross-voting by Congress legislators led to the humiliating defeat of the combined opposition candidate and sitting Upper House member Ripun Bora.

Votes of two Congress MLAs were rejected due to procedural reasons.

Assam Congress President Bhupen Kumar Borah has suspended Karimganj South MLA Siddique Ahmed from the primary membership of the party for "deliberately disobeying" the three-line whip issued by Congress legislative party chief whip Wazed Ali Choudhury with regard to the Rajya Sabha elections.

After the outcome of the Rajya Sabha polls, Congress' representation in the Upper House of Parliament from the politically important northeast region is now nil.

Assam has seven Rajya Sabha seats while the remaining seven states in the northeast have one seat each, and these 14 Upper House seats are now held by the BJP and their allies.

Out of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the eight northeastern states, highest number of 14 seats are with the BJP, while only four seats belong to the Congress and one is held by the Maulana Badruddin Ajmal-led All India United Democratic Front, a Muslim-based party in Assam.

The remaining five seats are held by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's constituents Naga People's Front

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