GUWAHATI: After consolidating its position by improving its vote share in the recent Manipur Assembly polls, the National People’s Party (NPP) led by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma is now eyeing Nagaland. Party’s Nagaland state president Andrew Ahoto Sema said, “We are working the undercurrent. Our poll-related activities will be visible from September-October period.”
“The Centre pumped so much money into Nagaland. However, we are yet to have basic public infrastructure. People are lying low but they see a good scope for them in the NPP because it is a sleeping lion,” the leader told this newspaper In Manipur, the NPP had upstaged the Congress to become the principal opposition party. It feels the Manipur results will have a ripple effect in Nagaland.
The NPP had won two seats in the 2018 Nagaland polls but suffered a jolt soon after when both MLAs jumped ship. With the state bracing for the elections again, the NPP has started the groundwork. The Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) heads Nagaland’s ruling coalition where the BJP is a key component.
The NPP Nagaland chief lamented, the ‘change’ part of Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio’s ‘change is coming’ tagline for his government remained elusive. “We have never had any finger-pointing on anything but we feel the state should flourish. It has been for nearly 20 years that the people of Nagaland are waiting to see the change which the CM had spoken about,” the party chief said. He said the party was grooming potential workers to make them election-ready. He claimed the NPP also received feelers from some MLAs of ruling parties who were willing to join it.