New Delhi: The Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine in Nagaland scored a thumping majority Thursday, with the Naga People’s Front (NPF) trailing far behind and the Congress failing to score a single seat.
The final tally in Nagaland stood at NDPP 25, BJP 12, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) seven and NPF 2. The National People’s Party (NPP) won five seats, while independents bagged four. The remaining were seats were divided among various other parties. The vote share stood at 18.8 per cent for BJP, 32.22 per cent for NDPP and 9.56 per cent for the NCP, among others.
In a state where it is tradition for the ruling party to align with whichever party is in power at the Centre, the return of the ruling alliance is as much a testament to Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio’s hold on Nagaland as the popular hope of development in the state and resolution of the Naga political issue.
Despite being the junior partner in the alliance, the BJP’s campaign blitzkrieg led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party president J.P. Nadda attempted to better its 12-seat tally of 2018.
CM Rio retained his own constituency, Northern Angami-II, as did prominent members of his cabinet, including education minister Temjen Imna Along, rural development minister Metsubo Jamir and public health engineering minister Jacob Zhimomi.
As for the new government, its biggest challenge going forward will be to resolve the Naga political issue — a promise that has now won Modi two successive elections in the state. Murmurs have already begun about how “Delhi is not serious about a solution”.
The issue hangs fire despite many expectations of a speedy resolution owing to the framework agreement the Government of India signed in 2015 with the NSCN (I-M), and Modi promising during the 2018 election campaign that the issue would be resolved within a few months.
The question now remains whether the Nagaland assembly, which was ‘Opposition-less’ in the previous term, will get a voice opposed to the government.
Whether the NPF chooses to join the Opposition benches or finds another reason to join the government — in 2021, it was for facilitating the resolution of the Naga political issue — remains to be seen.
NPF chief and former chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu had told ThePrint in an interview in the run-up to the elections that the party would take a call in this regard once the post-results scenario was clear.
Meanwhile, the challenge for the Congress will remain how to recover lost ground in the state. Though Rahul Gandhi had stayed away from the Nagaland campaign, party president Mallikarjun Kharge had campaigned there.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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