Landslide victory for Nagaland CM; Cong retains both seats in Manipur

Tripura: CPM bags both seats; Mizoram: Cong retains lone seat.

Like Narendra Modi, another serving CM is looking at a central role. Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio of the Naga People’s Front (NPF) won a landslide victory over his Congress rival. Neiphiu has been eyeing the national arena to grab a bigger and more visible role for Nagaland and the region.

Senior NPF leaders told The Indian Express they expect Neiphiu to get a ministerial berth, being close to both BJP president Rajnath Singh and Modi. “The timing is perfect. He has been looking for a role in national politics for some time. He wanted to contest the last Lok Sabha elections but the party was not keen on his leaving the state then,’’ a NPF senior leader said.

His campaign reflected this notion. Rio concentrated outside the state leaving his campaign to his supporters in Nagaland. He visited every Naga district in neighbouring Manipur including Senapati, Chandel, Ukhrul and Tamenglong, and Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and even Assam.

Unlike the rest of the country, North East had not seen a pro-Modi, pro-BJP wave. More so in Nagaland where a section of people consider themselves “not Indian”.

In Manipur, Congress retained both seats but NPF made inroads. It swept Senapati district and secured 46,000 votes in Karong and Mao. NPF gained a majority in Ukhrul district as well. The tipping point was CM Okram ibobi Singh’s Thoubal district with 1.5 lakh votes and a largely Meitei and Muslim population. Thoubal equalised the lead provided by Senapati to NPF and Kuki-dominated Churachandpur sealed the deal for Congress.

In Tripura, CPM retained both Lok Sabha seats for the sixth time in a row with huge margins, reinforcing its hold over its bastion.

In Mizoram, sitting Lok Sabha MP from Congress CL Ruala was re-elected to the lone LS seat as he defeated his nearest rival of Robert Romawia Royte of the UDF by a margin of 11,361 votes.