Congress fields 20 for 60-seat Nagaland House

KOHIMA/GUWAHATI: Congress see ms to be on a sticky wicket in

Nagaland

. The party announced a list of 23 candidates on February 6, just a day before the last day for filing nomination, and three candidates, including a former MLA, could not file papers due to the last-minute rush.

NSUI Nagaland chief S

Alfred

has quit and filed his nomination as an Independent candidate after being denied a ticket. Some leaders have blamed the state leadership for the delay in announcing names, saying the three have to travel an entire day to reach their constituencies from state capital Kohima as the places are far away.

A ICC in-charge of

Nagaland Jayakumar

said all political parties decided to follow the "poll boycott call" of Naga civil societies and agreed not to contest the election. However, BJP betrayed the people's trust and announced that it would fight the election. Jayakumar said since Congress was "forced" to contest at the last minute, it couldn't field candidates in all 60 seats.

This is the lowest number of candidates the party has fielded in Nagaland since it lost power to Naga People's Front (NPF) in 2003.