One of the most turbulent of all the tenures of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly since statehood is the current term that witnessed three chief ministers and may also get its fourth if the Election Commission of India declines the bye-elections. The beleaguered chief minister is not yet a member of the NLA and his term will come to an end in August unless he is elected to the House from one of the constituencies in the 60 member Assembly. His son has already resigned from the Assembly who was an MLA from the Northern Angami I constituency to pave for the chief minister’s election if the ECI announces the bye-elections.
In its fifteen years rule in the State the NPF party has never experienced the series of crises faced in the current tenure. There struggle for power in the state was so intense that not only the political parties but it also affected tribes, organisations and even families. The formation of a new regional party the Democratic Progressive party is a continuum of the ever increasing division in the NPF party in particular that had spread to the other political parties too affecting the overall political climate in the state. The official recognition of the new political party that submitted its papers during the last week of May is expected shortly and when the official launch takes place it will add more flavour to the already highly charged political atmosphere.
Some sections of the civil societies on the other hand especially the Church led by the Nagaland Baptist Churches Council is at present heavily involved in the campaign for clean elections in the state with pledge cards being distributed in churches across the state. Although the campaign started during the last Assembly Election it did not have much impact and that election witnessed the highest ever spending by candidates, with some spending upto 30 crores in constituencies where the number of electorates were not even twenty thousand. The independent surveys taken up by NGOs indicate that Nagaland has the highest ratio of money spent to the number of voters in all of the country. It is an open secret that the ECI rule limiting maximum election expenditure is flouted by all the candidates.
Nagaland is a state with negligible private enterprises and over the years the agrarian economy has seen a decline due to modernisation and the shifting of population to the urban areas. The high value style of living being replicated by the rural population had also made agriculture less attractive. The ever increasing dependency on the government for jobs, a sector that is already bursting at the seams, indicates the present understanding of the people of security and power attached to a government job. It is no secret that a public servant has a wide sphere of influence in the State and if not at least a public servant has a sense of security in a state that has seen armed conflict for the last 60 plus years. The less fortunate who do not have a government job seek some form of link with those who have and with political patrons. That is the existing mantra for security of most of the individuals in the state at present. So in spite of the campaigns by the Church and other civil societies, money and power is what the people seek because at present it translates to security for almost everyone in the state.
