The seat-sharing between the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was finalized on Thursday after two days of closed-door meetings between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphio Rio in Delhi. Gone.
In a series of meetings, where North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma was the chief coordinator, the final deal was finalized in the ratio of 40:20.
After finalizing the deal, Sarma said, “Today we are finalizing the seat-sharing arrangement with the NDPP for the Nagaland assembly elections.” In Nagaland, BJP will contest on 20 and NDPP on 40 seats. We have finalized the seats where BJP will contest.
Earlier in the election Nagaland, senior NDPP leaders including NDPP working president and party co-founder Alemtemshi Jamir, NDPP sitting MLA Imkong L Imchen and several other senior party leaders decided to join BJP.
The ruling coalition in Nagaland, led by the NDPP and the BJP, is notably without opposition in the 60-member assembly, but it faces other political challenges.
State Congress unit president K Theri said the party would contest all 60 seats, but did not rule out a post-poll alliance with the Naga People’s Front (NPF) and other “like-minded and secular” parties.
NPP’s election policy
The National People’s Party (NPP), which won two seats for the first time in 2018, is also preparing to give a tough fight. State unit president Andrew Ahoto said the party was looking at contesting 10-15 seats.
NPF Strategy
The NPF will not join any pre-poll alliance, but will work towards understanding with all political parties for any post-poll alliance. According to NPF Legislature Party leader Ajo Ninu, the NPF has also prepared a strategy called “pre-poll understanding for post-poll alliance”.
He dismissed speculations of an alliance between the NPF and the Congress in the upcoming election, saying that the NPF would carry forward the “pre-poll understanding for a post-poll alliance”. Ajo said this was shared by party president Shurhozelie Lizzietsu when Congress leaders met him recently.
On the Congress’s call for like-minded and secular parties to come together to form a secular alliance, Ajo said in the context of Nagaland, since the Naga political issue was more important, the NPF was ready for an alliance with any political party of the Nagas. interest of
He also said that NPF, NDPP and BJP have come together under the umbrella of United Democratic Alliance (UDA) in the larger interest of Naga political issues. “The demand for resolution of the Naga political issue may become stronger after 2023 and therefore, we cannot rule out another all-party government (after the elections).”
Ajo, however, said that if the all-party government did not work in the interest of the Nagas, it would not be formed. Asked whether the NPF would contest all the 60 assembly seats, he said the party was considering contesting more than 30 seats, but it was up to the party leaders and legislators to decide seat allocation and ticket distribution.
In 2018, the NDPP (18 MLAs) and the BJP (12 MLAs) came together to form the government along with the National People’s Party (2 MLAs), after the BJP broke ties with its long-time ally, the Naga People’s Front (NPF). took. , At that time, the NPF had won 26 seats, the largest number ever.
Since then there have only been more dramatic changes. In 2021, the NPF and independents decided to join the NDPP-BJP alliance to seek a collective solution to the Naga problems.
But the heat is on the NDPP and BJP alliance, which is fighting the elections on a 40:20 seat-sharing basis. Along with the parties, pressure is mounting from Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), who have accused the state BJP of “playing with fire” by going ahead with the elections without an acceptable political solution.
The NNPG is an umbrella organization of seven armed Naga organisations, which on 3 August 2015 joined the peace talks following renewed talks between the central government and the largest Naga insurgent group, the NSCN (IM).
anti public opinion
Seven tribes from six eastern districts under the umbrella of the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organization (ENPO) are demanding a separate Frontier Nagaland state and have threatened to abstain from participating in any election process if the central government fails to meet their demand. threatened. Negotiations are on between the committee constituted by the Union Home Ministry and the ENPO.
Meanwhile, the Konyak union has resolved to stick to ENPO’s resolution to abstain from participating in the Nagaland Assembly elections scheduled for August 26, 2022. The decision was taken during an emergency meeting held on January 18 at the Konyak Sangh office in Mon. The Sangh will stay away from the Nagaland elections until the demand for Frontier Nagaland is met.
The Sangh also pointed out that persons filing nominations from Konyak soil to participate in the Nagaland Legislative Assembly elections would be permanently expelled from the House and further said that the village of the person filing the nomination would be responsible for the same. The Konyak Union also urged the Konyak Shekho Khong, Konyak Students Union and Village Councils to fully implement and act as per the resolution.
read all latest politics news Here