BJP-NDPP alliance inches closer to victory in Nagaland

NEW DELHI: The BJP-NDPP alliance is on course to storm the Naga People's Front (NPF) bastion, as it is leading 35 of the 59 assembly seats up for grabs in the Nagaland Legislative Assembly.

The ruling NPF was lagging way behind, up in 19 seats, while other parties were leading in four. Bringing up the rear is the Congress party, ahead in one constituency.

The saffron party's victory in Tripura is quite certain, and if it forms the government in Nagaland as well, the tally of BJP-ruled states will go up to 21.

Prior to this election, Nagaland had been something of a political oddity - it was an Opposition-less state, where both the Congress and the BJP were part of the same government. But last month, the saffron party broke away from the NPF and joined hands with the NDPP, a fledgling party floated by former CM Neiphiu Rio.

BJP already had a major breakthrough when Rio won unopposed from the Northern Angamai-II seat. Rio, who has lead the state for 11 years, is being touted as the next chief minister.

Chief minister T R Zeliang of the NPF is leading over his nearest NDPP rival Iherie Ndang by over 4,000 votes from Peren constituency.

To put the current trends in perspective, here's how matters unfolded in the 2013 assembly election: the NPF won 38 seats and formed the government, the Congress secured 8 seats while the BJP won only one seat. Clearly, allying with the NDPP headed by power broker Neiphiu Rio has paid off for the BJP.

Reacting to the favourable headwinds for the BJP in Nagaland, Union minister Kiren Rijiju said the state was headed in a new political direction.

The trends are more or less in tune with the JanKiBaat-NewsX exit poll, which predicted the BJP-NDPP alliance to win 27-32 seats against the NPF's 20-25 seats. CVoter too claimed a victory for the BJP-NDPP with 25-31 seats.

Voting for the 59 seats in the 60-member Nagaland assembly was held on February 27.