The Congress has emerged as the single largest party in Meghalaya but it is unfortunate that it will not be a part of the state executive for perhaps the next five years (“Congress outsmarted in Meghalaya”, March 5).

This is a clear case of a fractured mandate being engineered in favour of the most powerful party. However, this is not the first time that we are witness to such a “power grab”; the same thing happened in the Manipur Assembly elections. Can proportional representation solve this conundrum of coalition politics?

Utkarsh Agrawal,

Allahabad

The northeastern States have for eons had an ethos distinct from that of the plains in the rest of India, and national politics has remained distant (“The saffron breeze in the Northeast”, March 5). The Congress initially served as a core around which regional entities twined themselves, but over time the party has allowed its core to fray. The Left with its blinkers has been no better. With the BJP now a part of the active political mix of this region, fresh winds could blow. However, equanimity and pragmatism must take over now that its ambition has been sated. A steep climb lies ahead.

R. Narayanan,

Navi Mumbai