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Khuochiezie ground in Kohima town being prepared for the swearing-in ceremony of Neiphiu Rio as chief minister of Nagaland, and his 11-member council of ministers.[/caption]
Kohima Bureau
Kohima, March 7 (EMN): Sixty-seven years old Neiphiu Rio, the leader of Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party-led (NDPP) People’s Democratic Alliance will be sworn in as chief minister of Nagaland on Thursday.
With his 11-member council of ministers, Rio will be administered the oath of office and secrecy by the governor of Nagaland PB Acharya at a public swearing-in ceremony that will be conducted at Khuochiezie ground in Kohima at 11:30 am.
A host of central government leaders including Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) national president Amit Shah; and the chief ministers of Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya, and Arunachal Pradesh are expected to attend the ceremony.
Elaborate preparations were underway on Wednesday for the significant ‘public event’ which is a first in Nagaland’s history—swearing-in ceremonies of chief minister and council of ministers were confined to the guarded grounds of the Raj Bhavan.
Neiphiu Rio, who hails from Touphema village in Kohima district, will be taking charge as chief minister for the fourth time. He was chief minister during 2003-08, 2008-13, and 2013-14. He entered parliamentary politics in 1987 when he contested in the general elections as an independent candidate at 11th Northern Angami-II assembly seat.
After an initial loss, he came back in the 1989 election and was elected to the seventh Nagaland Legislative Assembly on the Congress ticket. It was more or less a launch pad for him onto a successful career in state politics.
Following four wins in state assembly elections as a congressman, Rio was elected in 2003 on the Naga People's Front (NPF) ticket and eventually became the state's chief minister. He successfully led the party in ruling for two terms. In 2013, he was re-elected and continued as chief minister till 2014 when he decided to move to national politics. He won the 2014 parliamentary elections with a record margin of over four lakh defeating two other candidates. After having served as member of the Lok Sabha for over three years, he resigned on February this year and returned to state politics.
Rio quit the crisis-riddled NPF and joined the newly registered NDPP to contest the 2018 assembly polls as the party's chief ministerial candidate. He won unopposed from his home constituency—his eighth electoral win.
Under his leadership, the NDPP entered into a pre-poll alliance with the BJP and contested in 40 seats in the 60-member assembly while the BJP fought in 20 seats. The NDPP won 18 seats and the BJP 12 while their rival NPF won 26.
Although none of the political parties made the required 31 single-party figure for formation of government, the NDPP-BJP garnered support from an independent and a Janata Dal (United) candidate, taking the number to 32 to form the new coalition government. Subsequently, Governor PB Acharya appointed Rio as the chief minister on Mar. 6.
