The Congress is looking to recover its lost ground in Nagaland in the coming Assembly elections after having got obliterated in the last state polls in 2018 when it was unable to win a single seat. Last month, Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) President K Therie called “all like-minded leaders and political parties’’ to join hands to form a Secular Front. But the Congress is depending on three major factors in Nagaland for the polls — a strong anti-Hindutva stand in a Christian-dominated state, the delay in the Naga peace talks, and the anticipated tussle for tickets in Neiphiu Rio’s Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP). To regain its position in the state — the Congress had eight MLAs in 2013 — sources in the NPCC have said the party has reached out and is in conversation with the Church and the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), an umbrella body of six Naga insurgent groups. These are the most influential bodies in Nagaland and wield influence over Naga voters. As the Naga peace talks inch forward at a snail’s pace, the Congress is focusing on the inability and delay of the ruling NDPP-BJP alliance in delivering a solution to the seven-decade-long conflict, a poll promise the ruling dispensation had made ahead of the last Assembly election. “We are not going to promise something that we can’t deliver, unlike the BJP-NDPP which promised a solution but has not delivered on that promise,” All India Congress Committee (AICC) state in-charge Ranajit Mukherjee told The Indian Express. The Congress’s outreach to the NNPGs is significant. Unlike the NSCN (IM), the NNPGs have been on board with the solution proposed by the Union government since the official conclusion of the peace talks in 2019. But more interestingly, the NNPGs have been unhappy about the perceived intimacy between rivals NSCN (IM) and the NDPP. What the Congress can deliver — and is promising as a part of its poll plank — is development, which is a core issue in the state where the backward eastern districts have been calling for a separate state. “We are focusing on electricity, roads, industry, jobs — all missing in the state. The Congress has floated to other like-minded parties a vision of secular alliance, to ensure that the machinations of Hindutva forces, which have become prevalent in other states, are unable to make a back door entry in Nagaland,” said Mukherjee. More than just its election issues, the Congress will be heavily relying on the anticipated struggle for tickets within the NDPP. Last year, 21 of 25 MLAs with the Naga People’s Front (NPF) — Nagaland’s own regional party, as well as the oldest — decided to switch to the NDPP under the leadership of former Chief Minister TR Zeliang. With only four MLAs left in the Assembly, but still holding an emotional sway over sections of Naga society, political analysts in Nagaland believe that the coming elections will be the NPF’s litmus test and that its future will depend on these polls. The Congress is eyeing the NPF for an alliance to provide it with much-needed support and receive support in exchange. “With 21 MLAs having shifted from NPF to the NDPP, the party will now have to accommodate seats for these MLAs, where it had its own candidates in the last election. Moreover, while there are 12 BJP MLAs, the seat sharing between the allies is that BJP will fight 20 seats and the NDPP the remaining 40, which makes it even more difficult for the NDPP to accommodate its aspiring candidates. The Congress will cash in on the confusion that this is likely to create,’’ said a political analyst. The Congress is also likely to reach out to the Janata Dal (United), which, while it has never been a strong contender, has always had a presence in the northeastern states. In Nagaland, the JD(U) won three seats in 2003 and one in 2013. In neighbouring Manipur, the JD(U) emerged as a surprise element in last year’s Manipur Assembly polls and won six seats, one more than the Congress. Last year, after the party withdrew support from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), five of the JD(U) MLAs switched to the BJP.
