Nagaland Assembly Election: Congress releases first list of 21 candidates

New Delhi. The Congress on Saturday released the first list of 21 candidates for the Nagaland Assembly elections. According to the list of candidates released by the party, Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee President K.K. Theri has been made the candidate from Dimapur-1.

A day before the release of the list of candidates, a meeting of the Central Election Committee was held under the chairmanship of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, in which the names of the candidates were approved. S Amento Chisti from Dimapur-2, V Lasuh from Dimapur-3 and Rosie Thomas from Tanning have been nominated.

For this election, the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) has announced the names of the candidates for 40 seats. On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an ally of the ruling coalition, has fielded candidates on 20 seats. The NDPP and the BJP are contesting the elections to the 60-member assembly in alliance for the second time in a row. Both the parties cut the tickets of their 16 sitting MLAs.

Voting will be held on February 27 for the formation of the new assembly in Nagaland, while the counting of votes will take place on March 2. The last date for filing nomination papers will be February 7, while the last date for withdrawal of nominations will be February 10.

The term of the 60-member Nagaland assembly ends on March 12. At present there are total 59 members in the state assembly. Of these, the NDPP has 41 members, the BJP 12, the Naga People’s Front (NPF) four, and two independents, while one seat is currently vacant.

In the last assembly elections, no party got majority in Nagaland. The NPF, led by former chief minister TR Zeliang, emerged as the single largest party by winning 26 seats. In this election, NDPP led by senior leader Neiphiu Rio won 17 seats and BJP won 12 seats. Later BJP and NDPP formed the government in the state with the support of Janata Dal United and some other parties and Neiphiu Rio became the Chief Minister of the state for the fourth time.

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Tags: assembly elections, congress, Nagaland Assembly Election