GUWAHATI: Nagaland’s ruling parties – Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and BJP – will stick to their agreed 40:20 seat-sharing arrangement.
The state, which has 60 seats, will go to elections on February 27.
According to the agreement they had entered into, the NDPP will contest 40 seats and the BJP in the remaining 20 seats.
Some BJP leaders, mostly ticket aspirants, mounted pressure on the ruling United Democratic Alliance to allow the BJP to contest 30 seats. They argued if the BJP with just two MLAs can contest all 60 seats in Meghalaya, why can't the party with 12 MLAs in Nagaland be allowed to contest 30 seats? The BJP has not entered into any pre-poll alliance with any party in Meghalaya.
BJP sources in Nagaland claimed the party would not be affected by the perceived discontentment among a section of the leaders over the seat-sharing pact.
The NDPP and the BJP had fought the last election based on the 40:20 formula and they decided to stick to it even this election. A decision towards this effect was taken at a meeting between the leaders of the two parties in New Delhi recently.
Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio told journalists that there was no question of deviating from the agreed position. He said the 40:20 formula was reached based on consensus.
“We have already worked out the seat-sharing arrangement. Everybody was there when the decision was made. We will stand by it,” Rio said.
Minister Jacob Zhimomi of the BJP also said there was no question of revisiting the decision. He said it was taken by the party’s central leadership and the state leaders would abide by it.
Meanwhile, both Rio and Zhimomi said no decision has been made yet on which party will contest which constituencies. Sources from both parties said the decision is expected within January.
The third party in the ruling coalition – Naga People’s Front (NPF) – will go it alone. The NPF had emerged as the single largest party in the 2018 elections but the NDPP and the BJP managed to form a coalition government.
Last year, 21 of the 26 NPF legislators had “merged” themselves with the NDPP. Later, the NPF was accommodated by the government. The state’s present all 58 MLAs belong to ruling parties.
The Congress, which ruled the state for the most part, does not have a single MLA. The NDPP-BJP-NPF coalition is expected to retain power.