Dimapur, July 26 (EMN): The Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will continue with the 40:20 seat-sharing formula in the upcoming elections to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly.
The NDPP will contest in 40 seats and the BJP in 20 with no “friendly contest” in any constituency, a joint statement from the two parties informed on Tuesday.
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and his Assamese counterpart Himanta Biswas, who is also the convenor of North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), took to social media to confirm the same.
‘Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shri Amit Shah, our alliance is further strengthened. We remain committed to working for lasting peace and accelerated all-round development of the State. Grateful to BJP President JP Nadda, BL Santhosh and Himanta Biswa for their trust and support,’ Rio tweeted.
Biswa had earlier tweeted: ‘Today Hon’ble CM Neiphiu Rio and I met with Home Minister Amit Shah in his Parliament House office. Happy to share that the BJP and NDPP will jointly contest the forthcoming assembly elections’.
The joint statement from the NDPP and BJP stated that a core committee consisting members of the two parties will formulate the election strategy to decide at an appropriate time on the seats each party will contest respectively.
It may be mentioned that the NDPP-BJP alliance in Nagaland was formed in 2018, wherein the two parities contested in the Assembly elections on 40:20 (NDPP:BJP) ratio. The election campaign was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Tuensang on February 22, 2018 and the pre-poll alliance won the mandate of the people to form the government on March 8, 2018.
The alliance, it said, has given Nagaland a ‘stable government and carried out all round accelerated development.’
“Nagaland has witnessed an era of economic growth with the prevalence of a peaceful environment guided by the common minimum programme of the alliance. The State Government has played the role of an active facilitator in the peace process and serious efforts continue to be made by the State Government and the Government of India with the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah towards finding a peaceful solution through the on-going political dialogue.
“The NDPP-BJP Alliance has grown from strength to strength and continued to win the popular support of the people in the past four years having emerged victorious in elections to the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and assembly bye elections,” it added.
Meanwhile, the State BJP President Temjen Imna Along had on several occasions maintained that the party would continue the alliance. He recently re-affirmed that ‘the central leadership is committed to the alliance with the NDPP’.
He had also dismissed speculations around the BJP and urged the people not to “twist here or there”.