NDPP will respect alliance with BJP, says Nagaland Chief Minister on Rajya Sabha seat

Our Correspondent

Kohima, March 19 (EMN): Amidst much speculation about the nomination of candidates for the Rajya Sabha election due to be held later this month, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Saturday said that the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) would respect its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and make way for the latter on the upcoming polls.

This statement came a day after the BJP selected S Phangnon Konyak, president of Mahila Morcha (women wing) of Nagaland unit, as its candidate for the state’s lone Rajya Sabha seat which will be left vacant after the tenure of incumbent MP KG Kenye ends on April 2.

“I think there were more than 10 applicants who have gone to Delhi, who were shortlisted and she (S Phangnon Konyak) was selected. So, we feel that she was the right person,” Rio told journalists on the sidelines of the NLA session.

Citing the outcome of the recent consultative meeting wherein the house resolved to conduct Urban Local Body (ULB) election with 33% reservation for women and closely followed by selection of a woman candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls, he said: “That means our people are also having a lot of respect and updating themselves for women.”

On speculations by a section of people that the BJP is playing ‘appeasement politics’, given the fact that the candidate is from Mon district where the security forces had killed 14 civilians last year, Rio said, “I think that was not the point of consideration; she is the BJP Mahila Morcha President, so purely on party, and there’s nothing to do with Oting incident.”

When asked if the NDPP and BJP had made a special arrangement in connection with the Rajya Sabha seat, the chief minister said: ‘These are inner politics, so as an alliance, it can be either side, but we have respect for alliance, that’s how it came about’.