Guwahati: For the second consecutive term, the National Democratic Progressive Party(NDPP) and its ally Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) retain power in Nagaland by bagging 37 seats in the 60-member state assembly.
The NDPP supporters came out and started celebrating after the result was declared on Thursday.
The Congress, which governed the state for many years till 2003, had contested in 23 seats but drew a blank once again.
The NDPP candidates won 25 seats, eight seats more than the 2018 polls while BJP secured 12 seats, a similar number of seats the saffron party bagged in the last assembly polls (2018).
The Nationalist Congress Party secured six seats, National People’s Party led by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma managed five while Lok Janshakti Party(Ram Vilas), Nagala People’s Front and Republican Party of India (Athawale) bagged two seats each,Janata Dal (United) one and Independents got four seats.
Top NDPP leader and Nagaland’s longest serving Chief Minister septuagenarian Neiphiu Rio is also set to assume office as chief minister for a fifth consecutive term as his party along with ally BJP retained power in the northeastern state.
The NDPP and BJP, which contested the election in a 40:20 seat sharing arrangement,before the elections had announced that if voted to power, Rio would remain the Chief Minister.
The Nagaland Assembly polls were held for 59 of the 60 seats on Monday when 85.90 per cent of the state’s 13.16 lakh voters cast their votes.
Talking to reporters, Nagaland chief minister Neiphu Rio said, “We are sure of our winning because in last five years our government have done lots of work for the progress of the state. We thanked to the people of Nagaland for voting in support of us,”.