The Congress has sprung major surprises in Nagaland and Meghalaya. The Opposition party held on to the three seats it had won in Assam in 2019 despite the ruling BJP-led alliance increasing its seat tally from nine to eleven.

Having no hold in Nagaland since 2003 and no MLA in the Assembly since 2014, the Congress on Tuesday won the lone Lok Sabha seat from the state with Nagaland PCC chief S. Supongmeren Jamir beating the ruling NDPP candidate Chumben Murry by 50,984 votes in a three-way race.

Jamir’s feat has to be seen in the backdrop of the fact that the last Congress Lok Sabha MP from the state was Asungba Sangtam in 1998.

Jamir bagged 4,01,951 votes to Murry’s 3,50,967. The NDPP won the seat in 2019 with Tokheho Yepthomi beating K.L. Chisi by over 13,000 votes. The victory came despite the ruling NDPP-BJP winning a second straight term in the 2023 Assembly polls where the Congress had drawn a blank.

Jamir said they have a lot of work to do at the grassroots while thanking the people for his victory.

“I thank the people for their wisdom. They wanted change. People came forward to save democracy. The Congress will work for the development and welfare of our people,” he said while thanking Rahul Gandhi and his poignant Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra which passed through the state in January.

The Congress was also able to stun the ruling NPP in Meghalaya. The Congress’s Saleng A. Sangma fought the Tura seat for the party for the first time since 1999 following the expulsion of the former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma from the party. The seat had been with the Sangma family since 1977 barring a brief gap between 1989 and 1991. Agatha, eyeing a third straight term, is the sister of current chief minister Conrad K. Sangma and NPP leader.

Saleng polled 3,83,919 votes to beat Agatha by 1,55,241 votes.

For the NPP, it was a double blow when state minister M.A. Ampareen Lyngdoh finished third in the Shillong seat. The NPP retained power in the 2023 state polls and has the BJP as its ally. The BJP did not field candidates in Meghalaya.

However, the Congress’s gain in Tura was somehow dampened by the loss of its state PCC chief Vincent H. Pala to Ricky Andrew J. Syngkon of the Voice of the People Party (VPP) by a whopping 3,71,910 votes.

The VPP general secretary Ricky said that the mandate reflected the people’s desire for change and that they will work to meet people’s aspirations.

In Assam, despite the ruling BJP alliance increasing its tally from nine to eleven, the AGP and the UPPL opened a seat each while the BJP remained stuck at nine. The Congress managed to maintain its 2009 tally of three seats by winning Jorhat (Gaurav Gogoi), Nagaon (Pradyut Bordoloi) and Dhubri (Rakibul Hussain).

Gaurav defeated sitting Jorhat MP Topon Gogoi by about 1,44,393 votes against the BJP in a riveting contest, while Hussain beat the AIUDF chief by over 10 lakh votes (10,07,781), a feat that chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma described as a record. The wins will help consolidate both Upper Assam and Lower Assam while also sending the message that it has nothing to do with the AIUDF, a Congress leader said.

Chief minister Sarma thanked the people of Assam for blessing the NDA partners with a “massive mandate of 11 out of 14 seats in the state”

“The BJP-led NDA has also bettered its overall vote share to nearly 46%, a huge jump from the 39% vote share we secured in the 2019 Lok Sabha and 44% in the 2021 Assembly elections,” Sarma posted on X, adding they “remain committed to delivering on our promise to establish Assam among the top states in the country”. However, the Congress’s (37.47 per cent) vote share is more than the BJP’s (37.43 per cent) in Assam.