Influential Nagaland outfit threatens to abstain from poll process

GUWAHATI: Eastern Naga People's Organisation (ENPO), the apex body of seven major tribes of Nagaland, has written to the chief election commissioner reaffirming its decision to abstain from the Lok Sabha elections in protest against non-creation of a separate "Frontier Nagaland Territory". ENPO says Centre had promised the separate zone, with greater autonomy, before the announcement of the model code of conduct.

ENPO has been demanding that the zone be carved out of the state's six eastern districts - Mon, Kiphire, Longleng, Tuensang, Shamator and Noklak. Centre has proposed an alternative autonomous council with legislative, executive, administration, and financial autonomy. These six districts are home to seven of the 17 tribes of the state, including the Konyak, Chang, Yimkhiung, Sangtam, Phom, Khiamniungan and Tikhir.

The entire state is one Lok Sabha constituency (Nagaland) comprising 60 assembly segments. Twenty of these segments are in the six eastern districts. These districts together have nearly four lakh voters, which would be about 30% of the state's total electorate.

In its letter, ENPO said MHA had on Dec 7, 2023, "offered and assured" to settle the creation of Frontier Nagaland Territory before LS poll model code. "Despite numerous reminders through letters and mass public rallies, MHA turned a deaf ear ... which is why the Eastern Nagaland populace feels compelled to take this course of action as a means of expressing our collective discontent," it wrote. ENPO emphasised its decision was not intended as an act of defiance against the electoral machinery or principles of democracy.