Kohima: It’s been over two decades, but people from various walks of life in Nagaland still have fond memories of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to the state as prime minister in October 2003.
The rains had forced Vajpayee to shelve his plan to fly from Dimapur to Kohima in a helicopter on 27 October that year. He took the road instead — an experience that he brought up in his speech at the next day’s civic reception.
“Mother Nature wanted me to take the road journey from Dimapur to Kohima. I was told that, of all the roads in the state, this is the best. If this is the best, it is difficult to imagine how bad is the worst,” Vajpayee said, according to the archives of his speeches maintained by the Prime Minister’s Office.
Earlier, in February 2003, the BJP had bagged seven of the 38 assembly seats it contested, winning a vote share of 11 percent. It was a huge success for the party, which first contested in the 1987 state polls by fielding two candidates. Vajpayee, understandably, was enthused with the 2003 results.
In his speech, he said, “It is true that, of all the states in India, Nagaland has a unique history. We are sensitive to this historical fact.”
Nagaland BJP leader Mmhonlumo Kikon said that while the party tasted success much later, it was perhaps a “turning point” in the BJP’s political journey in Nagaland. Now, a whole generation born after Vajpayee’s speech will vote for the first time in the Lok Sabha polls.
In Nagaland, the BJP, which won 12 seats in the 60-member assembly in the 2023 state polls, is a part of the ruling People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) led by the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP).
In the Lok Sabha elections, the PDA has fielded a Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) leader as a joint candidate with the BJP against the Congress.
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‘BJP’s being in power at Centre helped’
While it has a substantial presence in the state now, the BJP couldn’t immediately capitalise on Vajpayee’s outreach to expand its footprint in Nagaland as the Congress-led UPA dislodged it from power at the Centre in 2004. In the 2008 state polls, the BJP’s tally dropped to two, and in 2013, to one.
The BJP’s ally since 2003, Naga People’s Front (NPF) — which dominated the state during the UPA years — would later claim that it “contained” the growth of its partner in the state, where 88 percent of people are Christians, according to the 2011 census.
But leaders of the BJP, NPF, and its offshoot NDPP, which is the state’s biggest party now, admit in private that even as the breakthrough moment came much later for the BJP, it gained by remaining focused on the eastern Nagaland districts, where Catholics and even advanced tribes like Lothas have been aggrieved with little representation in the power structure. In Nagaland, the majority of Christians are Baptists.
The eastern Nagaland districts, including Mon, Longleng, Tuensang, Noklak, Shamator and Kiphire, lag in most socio-economic parameters, leading to demands for a separate state or a Union territory comprising these areas. The Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO) has called for a boycott of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls over this demand.
“The BJP is nurturing strongholds in eastern Nagaland comprising five backward districts mostly bordering Myanmar and Wokha district along the Assam border, which account for 24 seats and are relatively open to non-regional parties. Eastern Nagas feel neglected under regional parties controlled by ‘advanced’ tribes. Among the ‘advanced’ tribes, the Lothas of Wokha feel politically marginalised,” wrote Azim Premji University professor Vikas Kumar in his book, Waiting for a Christmas Gift, published in 2023.
In the 2003 polls, four of the seven seats that the BJP won in Nagaland were in eastern Nagaland. The remaining seats were in the neighbouring Wokha, Mokokchung and Dimapur, the state’s commercial centre, where non-Nagas have a substantial presence, said a BJP leader.
“Of course, BJP’s being in power at the Centre helped. Moreover, Vajpayee had made some moves towards the peace process such as signing (an) agreement with the Khaplang faction of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) by that time. Former Chief Minister Hokishe Sema had also joined the party. Sema, in fact, won from the Dimapur seat,” said the BJP leader, who did not want to be named.
More importantly, the Congress saw itself reduced to 21 seats in 2003, facing an intense backlash over its veteran leader and five-time chief minister S.C. Jamir’s booklet, Bedrock of Naga Society, which, his critics alleged, presented the 16-point agreement signed by the Naga People’s Convention with the Indian government in 1960 as the final political solution.
“Erosion in Jamir’s support base had created a vacuum then,” the BJP leader said.
In 2008, of the two seats the BJP bagged, one was in eastern Nagaland’s Mon and the other in Wokha, while the lone seat won in 2013 was also in Mon district.
In 2018, when the BJP contested in an alliance with the NDPP and its seat tally was the highest ever in the state — 12, five were in eastern Nagaland. The others were, like in the previous years, in Dimapur, Mokokchung and Wokha, where the BJP has had a consistent presence since 2003.
In 2023, out of the 20 candidates the party fielded, 14 were in eastern Nagaland, and neighbouring Mokokchung and Wokha, and among the winners, eight came from these areas.
The BJP’s efforts to make inroads in these areas go back as far as 1991, when it had fielded Pius Lotha, who hails from Wokha, to contest the general elections. Lotha, who had later served as the chief of the BJP’s state unit, lost the polls.
The current deputy CM of Nagaland Yanthungo Patton, also from the BJP, and a catholic, represents the Tyui constituency, which is in the Wokha district. Patton served as the deputy CM even between 2018-2023.
‘BJP units have organised beef parties too’
That the BJP’s second coming in Nagaland followed the party’s formation of government at the Centre in 2014 could lead someone to conclude that the success of the national parties in northeastern states is directly tied to their stints in New Delhi. After all, soon after the BJP won the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, three NPF MLAs, two of whom had won as the BJP’s candidates in 2003, switched over to it.
Kikon, however, said Nagaland bucked that trend. “Even during the UPA years, NPF, which was governing Nagaland, remained a part of the NDA,” he said.
In 2009, however, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, then with NPF, had offered his “unconditional support” to the UPA after it returned to power even as his party technically remained in the NDA.
Also, Kumar, in his book, pointed out how the BJP has been attempting to create a robust cadre base in the state to sustain its presence in the long run. For instance, during the 2023 Karnataka assembly polls, the party flew a delegation of leaders, including the deputy CM, from Nagaland to campaign among a little over 8,000 Nagas in Bengaluru, and also hold meetings with Church leaders.
“It is also about the BJP’s tactful position on issues such as the consumption of beef. Local BJP units have organised beef parties too. Deputy CM Patton has said on record that beef is the staple of Nagaland, and the BJP will never interfere on such issues,” said a BJP leader. The party’s Meghalaya unit chief Ernest Mawrie has also underlined the same on many occasions.
Speaking to ThePrint at his residence, Kenye, who was Nagaland’s Rajya Sabha MP between 2016-22, said for smaller states, particularly in the Northeast, the party which is in power at the Centre is of “paramount importance”.
“Moreover, as a regional outfit, NPF was always fiercely opposed to the Congress. It was never very averse to the idea of an understanding, first with the Janata Party, and then with the BJP. BJP under Vajpayee was also different. Its polarising and aggressive side did not surface as prominently. Now, the BJP is different. But NDPP’s alliance with the BJP now is purely due to the fact that the latter is in power in Delhi,” Kenye said.
Kenye said that parties such as the NDPP are aware of the pitfalls of the BJP’s cultural agenda in a state like Nagaland. “We have been telling people that we cannot be at loggerheads with the Centre and also go to them begging for money. So, the idea is to stay away from issues such as UCC and CAA. In the case of CAA, we forced the Centre to insert a clause in the Act to keep states such as Nagaland, where Inner Line Permit is required to travel to, out of its purview,” Kenye said.
Rio has also been telling the people during campaigning that “we will never compromise our faith and identity as Christians”.
On Thursday, adding to the NDPP’s worries, the Nagaland Baptist Church Council, an influential religious body in the Christian-majority state, accused the BJP-led Centre of “actively promoting right-wing extremism” in an appeal to voters.
Deputy CM T.R. Zeliang, addressing an election rally on Friday, also appeared to echo the same concern, saying the NDPP and BJP are different parties. He said the BJP may have its ideologies, but the NDPP, as a regional party, will “safeguard the interest of Naga people”.
As Nagaland prepares to vote on 19 April, state BJP leaders feel the party stands to gain in the event of the NDPP candidate’s victory or defeat. “If the NDPP wins, the NDA gains. If it loses, the BJP will be better placed to bargain as a smaller ally in the state,” the leader said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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