Dr. Imtiwapang Aier likely to become NLA speaker

Kohima, March 19: 44-year old Dr. Imtiwapang Aier is reportedly set to become the new Speaker of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly.

The post of Assembly Speaker had been lying vacant after Chotisuh Sazo resigned in February. Deputy Speaker Imtikumzuk is currently holding additional charge of the duties of Speaker since March 2.

The period for filing nominations to the speaker’s post commenced on March 18. It has been learned that Dr. Imtiwapang Aier is the only candidate to have filed nomination papers so far. According to Democratic Alliance of Nagaland sources, Dr. Imtiwapang was the ‘consensus candidate’ named to take the chair following Sazo’s resignation.

The election of the speaker by members of the assembly is scheduled to be held on March 21. If he is the sole MLA to file nomination, Aier will be elected uncontested. He would then become the second person to hold the chair of the speaker in the 12th assembly.

Earlier, Aier had served as lecturer at Kohima Science College in Jotsoma during 2000-2003; a guest lecturer at Nagaland University during 2006-2007; a resource person at Administrative Training Institute in Kohima in 2009. He was a senior research fellow (DST, New Delhi) at NU during 2006-2008. He is a recipient of the Young Scientist-IBC Award for 2011 at Cambridge University, London. He left his career in academics to join politics and was elected as a Congress candidate from Impur assembly constituency in the 2013 state elections. He is a native of Sungratsü village under Mokokchung district.

Highly placed sources have disclosed that Imtikumzuk was likely to resign after ensuring that a new speaker was going to be elected, owing to “pressing circumstances”. Although he could not be reached for confirmation, if this is to happen, the NLA will have to elect a new deputy speaker soon as required by the constitution.