Guwahati, Jan 20: In a major political development, Nitish Kumar, led Janata Dal-United (JD-U) has decided to contest the upcoming Nagaland assembly polls scheduled in last week of February.
After the party’s success in Bihar elections, the JDU has spread their wing and decided to place candidates for Nagaland assembly polls to show their political presence in the hill state.
Afaque Ahmed Khan, the party’s national general secretary and in-charge of the northeast said, “After parliamentary board meeting, we will decide on how many seats, we will contest in Nagaland assembly polls,”.
“We contested on 14 seats in 2018. This time, we have decided to contest on at least as many or more. People are looking at us as a alternative of BJP in Northeast. Our party is there and it is working to develop our base,” he informed.
He said, “We are thinking for a pre-poll understanding with like-minded parties for a post-poll alliance,”.
The party has fielded candidates in the state since 2003 when it contested on 13 of the total 60 seats and won three, with a vote share of 5.8%.
Meanwhile, JD-U is hoping for success in Nagaland to fulfill its long-standing ambition of getting a national party status.
“We already have state party status in three states- Bihar, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. If we perform well, that would be an added bonanza,” Afaque Ahmed Khan said.
JD-U secured more than 10.75 % votes and won six of 60 seats in Manipur in the assembly polls held in March 2022.
The party got the status of a ‘state party’ in Arunachal Pradesh after it secured around 9.88 % votes and won 7 of the 15 seats in the 2019 assembly polls.