Counting of votes in Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya: Date, time and where to watch

Counting of votes for assembly elections held in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura states will take place on Thursday (March 2). Polling for 178 constituencies in three states was held on February 16 and 27. The counting of votes will start at 8 am as per the order of Election Commission of India (ECI). Out of 60 seats in Nagaland, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won one constituency (Akuluto) unopposed. In Meghalaya too, the total number has come down from 60 to 59 as elections were held in one constituency.
Where can I see the vote count?
All important updates related to the counting of votes in the three northeastern states will be available at https://ndtv.com/elections. Users can also click on our Live TV link to watch in-depth coverage.

Current Chief Ministers
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) was in power in Tripura for over 30 years, until the BJP registered a historic victory in 2018. In the last assembly elections, the BJP won 36 of the 60 seats despite having no lead in the state. The CPM won 16 seats and the Congress, which was the main opposition party in the previous assembly, could not win a single seat. BJP’s Manik Saha has been sworn in as the Chief Minister.

Meghalaya’s Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, who heads the National People’s Party (NPP) and has decided to contest the assembly elections alone. His party and Himanta Biswa Sharma’s BJP jointly ran the state government under the banner of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance.

In Nagaland, the BJP and the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) came to power in 2018. The two parties formed a coalition government with support from the Janata Dal (United) and an independent. Naibyu is the current Chief Minister of Rio State.

What do the polls predict?
Opinion polls suggest that the BJP will expand its footprint significantly in the Northeast, register victories in Tripura and Nagaland and win more seats in Meghalaya in the recent assembly elections.

Polls show that BJP’s coalition government with its ally NDPP (Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party) will come to power in Nagaland and will win at least 7 seats in Meghalaya – winning from two.