National elections in a tribal state

This chapter looks at 2014 elections in the northeastern states with a particular focus on Meghalaya. It suggests that the specific dynamics of competitive politics in Meghalaya can be traced to colonial policies introduced for administration purposes, post-independence Affirmative Action programmes, and modes of political mobilisation of the last decades. The interlinkage of these processes turned tribal identity into a key category of the socio-political discourse in the state and created the current political conditions distinguishing Meghalaya from other Indian states. It argues that the BJP has achieved success but this could be not be described as Modi wave.