BJP-NDPP renews alliance ahead of assembly polls

GUWAHATI: BJP and its partner in the government in Nagaland, Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), have renewed their alliance and have decided to contest the assembly polls early next year with the same seat sharing formula as in 2018.

The two parties have kept out Naga People’s Front, the third partner of the ruling alliance in the opposition-less state assembly. The partnership was renewed at the meeting between BJP president JP Nadda and Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio in New Delhi.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is the convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), the miniature version of NDA in northeast, shared a joint statement of BJP and NDPP which says that leaderships of the two parties “have mutually agreed to continue the alliance with seat sharing in the forthcoming elections to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly of 40:20, wherein the NDPP will contest in 40 seats and the BJP will contest in 20 seats.”

“There will be no friendly contest in any constituency. A Core Committee of NDPP and BJP Members will formulate the election strategy to decide the seats at an appropriate time to decide in which seat each party will contest respectively,” the joint two parties said in the statement.

The NDPP-BJP alliance was formed in 2018 ahead of the assembly elections where NDPP contested in 40 seats and the BJP contested in 20 seats. The pre-poll alliance won the mandate of the people to form the government.