NEW DELHI: The ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition in Nagaland announced that it will jointly contest the Nagaland Assembly polls which are scheduled to take place early next year.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, the NDPP-BJP said, “The leadership of the of the two parties led by BJP president JP Nadda and Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio of the NDPP have mutually agreed to continue the alliance with seat sharing in the forthcoming elections to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly of 40:20, wherein the NDPP will contest in 40 seats and the BJP will contest in 20 seats.”
It also ruled out any friendly contest in any assembly constituency. It further said that seats for each party have not been identified yet and a committee will be formed to “decide in which seat each party will contest”.
Announcing the alliance on social media, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted, “Today Hon’ble CM Neiphiu Rio and I met with Home Minister Amit Shah in his Parliament House office. Happy to share that the BJP and NDPP will jointly contest the forthcoming assembly elections.”
Sarma is convenor of NEDA (North East Democratic Alliance), a platform of non-Congress parties of Northeast India.
Today Honble CM @Neiphiu_Rio and I met with Home Minister @AmitShah in his Parliament House office. Hapoy to share that the @BJP4India and @NDPPofficial will jointly contest the forthcoming assembly elections as per the Joint Statement below: pic.twitter.com/lj3tC8wM2p
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) July 26, 2022
The NDPP-BJP alliance was stitched in 2018 and contested the Nagaland Assembly polls in 2018 on the 40:20 formula. The BJP had won 12 of the 20 seats it had contested and the NDPP had won 17 of the 40 seats it contested.
Declaring the success of the coalition government, the joint statement said, “The alliance has provided Nagaland with a stable government and carried out all round accelerated development with the full-fledged support of Prime Minister Modi’s Government, and Nagaland has witnessed an era of economic growth with the prevalence of a peaceful environment guided by the Common Minimum Program of the alliance.”
“The State Government has played the role of an active facilitator in the peace process and serious efforts continue to be made by the State Government and the Government of India with the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah towards finding a peaceful solution through the on-going political dialogue.”