India's Nagaland legislative assembly is likely to have an opposition-less government as all the political parties have extended unconditional support to the triumphant Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance in the state.
In a first, the state will have an opposition-less assembly even before the House is sworn in.
The NDPP-BJP alliance won the state assembly elections held last month, with election results announced last week on March 2.
The alliance won 37 of the 60 assembly seats with the NDPP winning 25 while the BJP won 12. The total number of seats required to form the government was 31.
Other political parties like Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won seven seats, National People’s Party (NPP) won five while Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) (Ram Vilas), Naga People’s Front (NPF), and Republican Party of India (RPI) (Athawale) won two seats each. Janata Dal (United) (JD-U) won one seat while four independent candidates managed to emerge victorious.
The Congress Party was not able to win a single seat in the state.
Notably, Nagaland is one of the Indian states which has the highest number of political parties competing.
However, it is yet not decided when NDPP-BJP will stake a claim to form the government in the state but they have received unconditional support from other political parties.
According to media reports quoting sources, LJP (Ram Vilas), RPI (Athawale), JD (U) have already submitted letters of support to the alliance partners while NCP newly elected lawmaker Y Mhonbemo Humtsoe informed media on Sunday that his party has also submitted a letter extending “unconditional” support to Neiphiu Rio-led NDPP on Saturday.
Meanwhile, NPF General Secretary Achumbemo Kikon told the media that though a final decision has not been taken, the party, which has two lawmakers, is “likely to extend support to the government."
Previously, there have been opposition-less governments in the state on two occasions: for the first time in 2015 when eight Congress lawmakers joined the ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland led by the NPF under the then-state chief T.R. Zeliang.
Subsequently, in 2021, the government was joined by NPF in the interest of finding a solution to the decades-old Naga political issue.