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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah is set to look North-East. Ahead of his visit to the seven sisters, he was warned by state chiefs on the fallout of the Centre’s new cattle

trade law. According to an _Indian Express_ report, BJP’s state chiefs from Meghalaya, Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh opined that their states should be

exempt from the latest restriction. It was only a week ago when Tura Member of Parliament and National People’s Party leader from Meghalaya, Conrad Sangma, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra

Modi to de-notify the cattle trade restrictions in the “interest of the people”. On June 1, BJP West Garo Hills District President Bernard N Marak tendered his resignation over the issue,

which was followed by the resignation of North Garo Hills District President Bachu Marak. “Imposition of BJP’s non-secular ideology on us is not acceptable,” Marak said. However, Meghalaya

BJP State President Shibun Lyndoh described the resignations as a “personal decision” but said that the wishes of the people would be respected and assured that nothing could be done to

“hurt the sentiment or disturb the lives of any section of people”. BJP State President of Mizoram, JV Hluna, said the party had a meeting with Shah earlier and that Mizoram may be exempt

from following the restriction after they raised their concerns with Shah. “We will not be able to change our lifestyle. His response was, ‘It’s up to you. You follow whatever you want.’ So

I don’t think Mizoram will be asked to implement this notification,” Hluna said. Assam and Tripura State Party Chiefs Ranjeet Kumar Das and Biplab Kumar Deb were of the same opinion that

such a restriction would dent BJP’s prospects in future. Besides these states, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal have also expressed their dissent at the notification.