2019 exit polls: Despite protests, BJP and allies set to expand in the Northeast

The BJP is set to continue what it has made a habit of expansion in the Northeast. The exit polls released on Sunday evening predicted that the BJP and its allies could end up sweeping the region, owing to a strong showing in Assam.

An average of exit polls predicted that the BJP and its allies could end up winning in 17-19 of the 25 seats in the eights states that form the Northeast. The average also saw the Congress winning 4-6 seats, with two seats seeing going to the AIUDF in Assam.

The BJP-led NDA's predicted tally is based largely to the average of 9 seats it is expected to win out of Assam's 14 Lok Sabha constituencies. It also saw the BJP and its partners winning all of the two seats each in Tripura, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, and the singles seats in Mizoram and Nagaland. Meghalaya, which has two seats, is expected to hand one each to the Congress and NPP, which is an NDA ally.

The predictions would mean the widespread protests seen across the Northeast over the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which were expected to deal a blow to the NDA have not quite worked against the BJP. Whether the mobilisation of the protests sparked a counter-mobilisation or whether the issue failed to cut any ice at all would be revealed in the analysis after the results are announced on May 23.

With 14 Lok Sabha seats, Assam is the biggest state in the region, and had marked the first BJP government in the Northeast in the 2016 Assembly elections. The BJP and its allies had won 8 seats in the state in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. This had in itself been an improvement over the score of 4 in the 2009 elections.