Opinion polls rarely cover it, national political leaders chopper their way through, landing at a place or two, and media largely ignore it — that’s how elections come and go in India’s Northeast. But there is as much of a buzz on the ground as in any other place.

It’s just that with only 25 MPs representing eight states, the Northeast doesn’t matter as much for poll pundits and party strategists dabbling in the national calculus. These eight states are sparsely populated with just 4% of India’s population spread over 8% of India’s land area, mostly hilly and forested.

Two forces, often at odds with each other, determine the region’s complex politics. One is ethnic or regional aspirations and the other is their relationship with the Centre. Politics and governance is highly dependent on central largesse. In Nagaland and Mizoram over three quarters of the state’s revenue receipts (income) comes from central grants. The situation is similar in other NE states. Only in Assam, the largest of the NE states having more than two thirds of the population of the region, does the share of central grants drop to 35%. The other side of the coin is that their own tax generation is very low. Apart from the big Assam, Tripura is the state with the highest own-tax revenue — 13%.