Changing equations
Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang (Source: Twitter/@TRZeliang) Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang (Source: Twitter/@TRZeliang)
With political parties in Nagaland coming out of election-boycott mode, political equations have begun changing. On Saturday, the BJP announced its decision to forge an alliance with the newly formed Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) headed by Lok Sabha member and former chief minister Neiphiu Rio. While doing so, the BJP parted ways with its 15-year-old alliance partner, the ruling Naga People’s Front (NPF) which has headed the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN).
In Kohima, BJP state spokesman K James Vizo said the party’s alliance with NDPP was finalised at a meeting between Rio and party national president Amit Shah late Friday evening in New Delhi.
Former chief minister Neiphiu Rio, who was originally with the Congress, had quit the party in 2002 after accusing then chief minister S C Jamir of allegedly blocking the way for a peace settlement with the NSCN(IM). He then joined the NPF and was later made chief minister. In 2014, he resigned as CM to contest the Lok Sabha elections and handed over charge to T R Zeliang. Between 2014 and 2018, however, he had at least three public fall-outs with Zeliang. He was suspended from the NPF twice – first in May 2015 and then in August 2017 – for alleged anti-party activities. In January, Rio joined the NDPP that had been set up by his supporters a month earlier.
For the Congress, which does not have even one MLA in the outgoing House despite having originally won eight seats in 2013, it is going to be an uphill task to make a comeback even as an Opposition party.
The party had in 2003 emerged as the largest party by winning 21 seats, with the NPF coming second with 19. It was then that the NPF, then headed by Rio, formed DAN, cobbling together an alliance with the BJP (7), JD-U (3), National Democratic Movement (5) and Samata Party (1).
In 2008, the Congress won 25 MLAs and the NPF 26. Thus, the NPF formed DAN-2, again a post-poll alliance with the BJP (2), NCP (2) and Independents (7) joining it against 25 MLAs of the Congress.
In 2013, however, the NPF bagged 37 seats in the 60-member House. But to make sure there were no mass defections, as is common in Northeastern states with small assemblies, the NPF took no chance and constituted DAN-3 with the BJP (1), JD-U (1), NCP (4) and all nine Independents as partners, thus taking the ruling front strength to 52. In November 2015, however, all the eight Congress MLAs joined the BJP, thus taking the DAN strength to 60 with no member in the Opposition.
“We have been out of power for long. Moreover, we don’t have money to fund our candidates the way the NPF, BJP or NDPP does. But despite that, we hope to make a comeback, and will look for a post-poll alliance with secular forces, because Nagaland is definitely heading for a hung assembly,” said K Therie, president of the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee.
Therie also described the alliance as an opportunistic one. “The NDPP is nothing but a bunch of disgruntled NPF leaders with a new name,” he said.
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