GUWAHATI
The BJP and the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) have decided to continue with their pre-poll alliance for the Nagaland Assembly election in 2023.
The two parties had tied up for the first time ahead of the 2018 election in the State.
“The NDPP will contest 40 seats and we will contest 20,” Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told journalists in New Delhi on Tuesday. He is the convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance, a BJP-fronted forum for anti-Congress regional parties in the northeast.
A few leaders who had broken away from the Naga People’s Front (NPF) had formed the NDPP in 2017 after the former severed its ties with the BJP. The NDPP received a shot in the arm when Neiphiu Rio, Nagaland’s Chief Minister, quit the NPF and joined it a month ahead of the February 2018 poll. Ten more NPF legislators followed him.
The NDPP and the BJP, with a combined strength of 30 MLAs, formed the government along with some smaller parties. In April, 21 of the NPF’s 25 MLAs switched over to the NDPP.
