Neiphu Rio set to be sworn in Nagaland CM, Y Patton of BJP likely to be his deputy

Neiphu Rio-headed People’s Democratic Alliance comprising NDPP and BJP is set to form the next government in Nagaland after he submitted letters of support of 32 legislators to governor PB Acharya in Kohima on Monday. However, the outgoing Naga People’s Front government tried to queer the pitch, with TR Zeliang refusing to resign as CM and asking BJP to help it form the government as quid pro quo for support to the saffron party’s government in Manipur.
NPF’s efforts notwithstanding, the PDA government is likely to be sworn in on Wednesday or Thursday. Y Patton, elected BJP’s legislature party leader on Monday, is likely to be the deputy chief minister. The PDA has started preparations for a grand swearing in ceremony at the historic Kohima Local Ground, where statehood for Nagaland was once declared. “The governor had asked Rio to submit letters of supporting MLAs in 48 hours. On Monday, Rio submitted the letters,” a senior official in Kohima Raj Bhavan told ET.

The wafer thin majority of PDA may see a not-so-stable government in Nagaland. The NPF has 26 seats in the new assembly while its pre-poll ally — Conrad Sangma’s National People’s Party that has taken support of the BJP in Meghalaya — won two seats in Nagaland. On the other hand, Rio’s Nationalist Democratic People’s Party and BJP which contested in alliance has 30 seats in the 60-seat assembly, including Rio, who was elected unopposed. With the alliance managing the support of a JDU MLA and an independent, it has managed to secure a majority.


Supporting the efforts of CM TR Zeliang, chief of NPP’s Nagaland unit, Ato Yepthomi, in a letter to the governor, said the alliance should be invited to form the government.

“The electorate voted for individual political parties and not for the arrangement of alliances. The country is governed by anti-defection law provided for by the 10th Schedule of the Constitution that seeks to mandate morality in politics. The NPP will have alliance only with the NPF for formation of government. Any other claims or declaration by MLAs of NPP in Nagaland in this regard to the exigency of the government formation may therefore be ignored as invalid.”

TR Zeliang has refused to quit as CM and his NPF said “the NPF has emerged as the largest party and had submitted to the governor letters of support of pre-poll alliance partners the NPP and the JDU. The governor, in all fairness, had given him (CM) 48 hours to prove his majority. And when efforts are on to cobble up requisite numbers to form the government, the question of the CM resigning does not arise,” NPF said. Supporting NPF, Manipur NPP president Thangminlien Kipgen and Manipur NPF president Awangbow Newmai reached out to BJP chief Amit Shah. In a letter they said the BJP, the NPP and the NPF had formed the government in Manipur last year and they must continue with this model in Nagaland.

NPF president Shürhozelie Liezietsu too has written to Shah informing him of the party’s eagerness to continue its alliance with the BJP. The NPF has also threatened to pull out of the Manipur government if the interest of the party is ignored in Nagaland.

However, BJP’s northeast strategist Himanta Biswa Sarma said NDA’s ties with the NPF have been snapped.