Nagaland may see an Opposition-less govt as NCP too lean towards ruling NDPP-BJP combine

The other parties whose candidates won include the NCP, NPP, NPF, RPI(A), LJP(RV), JD(U) and four Independents. Even before voting took place, the RPI(A) and the LJP(RV) (Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas) — which won two seats each, had pledged their support to the BJP. (The two are allies of the BJP in other states.) After the elections, the lone JD(U) winner, Jwenga Seb, also stated that he will be extending his support to the government.

NPF (National People’s Front) general secretary and one of the party’s two winning candidates, Achumbemo Kikon, told The Indian Express that the party is observing the government formation process, after which it will take a call on whether to join the government or not, adding that the government cannot work towards a resolution of the Naga political problem without the NPF’s support.

The final two years of the last Assembly were also Opposition-less, with all parties including the NPF coming together with the NDPP-BJP government on a common platform to seek a solution to the Naga political problem.

That left only the NCP. With seven seats, it would have been the largest party outside the NDPP-BJP combine in the Assembly, and it has the numbers to claim the Leader of Opposition (LoP) position. However, during party-in-change Narendra Verma’s recent trip to Nagaland, to meet the winning candidates, the latter are said to have informed him that they want to join the government.

“We have expressed our opinion in favour of joining the government, but we are awaiting consent from the party high command, which is where the final decision will be taken,” said Toiho Yeptho, one of the seven.

Verma is currently in Delhi to communicate this to NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, and the party will take a call after deliberations with the Maratha strongman.

For context, the candidates who have won from the NCP are not “party men”. Like other parties in the state, the NCP had handed out tickets to sitting MLAs and other experienced aspirants denied tickets by their respective parties. Their newly-appointed legislature party leader, Picto Shohe, was elected as an NPF MLA in 2018, before crossing over to the NDPP. He had joined the NCP for a ticket after he was denied one by the NDPP this time.

Yeptho, the spokesperson for the legislature party, told The Indian Express that the new candidates do not see the NCP joining an NDPP-BJP government in Nagaland as something unusual. “In Nagaland, it is an NDPP government. They are the majority party and many of us have good relations with them. In the context of mainland India, the NCP would have sat in the Opposition, but here in Nagaland, we don’t have any such enmity with the BJP or any other party. The context is very different. This is a small state and in order to develop our constituencies, we need to sit in the Treasury benches,” he said.