Neiphiu Rio sworn in as Nagaland chief minister

NEW DELHI:

Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party

(

NDPP

) leader Neiphiu Rio was on Thursday sworn in as the chief minister of Nagaland, reported news agency ANI.


The attendees at the oath-taking ceremony in Kohima included defence minister Niramala Sitharaman, minister of state (home) Kiren Rijiju, BJP president Amit Shah, BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav, Manipur CM N Biren Singh, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu, Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal and Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed his inability to attend the event, a source in the Raj Bhavan had told PTI yesterday.

The venue - Kohima Local Ground - is significant as this was where then-President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan made the announcement of Nagaland's statehood on December 1, 1963.

Before this, swearing-in ceremonies in the state have been organised at the Darbar Hall of Raj Bhavan, reported PTI.

"We want development in Nagaland. We will work hard to facilitate the Naga political issue at the earliest," said Rio, who has served as the state's CM three times before this, between 2003 and 2014.

"We want to give good governance to the people of Nagaland. We (BJP) got six ministers in the cabinet," said Deputy CM Y Patton.

Rio's NDPP is allied with the BJP, and has the support of the JD(U) and an Independent - giving it the backing of 32 of the 60 MLAs in the state.




The polls in Nagaland delivered a hung mandate, with the ruling Naga People's Front winning 26 seats of the 60 seats in the Assembly, the BJP 12, the NDPP 18, the National People's Party (NPP) two and the JD(U) and and Independent one each.


(With inputs from agencies)