NDPP sweeps civic elections in Nagaland

KOHIMA, Nagaland: The National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) swept the urban local body elections held in Nagaland on June 26. NDPP won 152 seats in the civic elections held after almost two decades.

State Election Commission (SEC) announced that the NDPP has prevailed in 152 seats in municipal and town councils while the independent candidates have won 56 seats and BJP has won 25 seats. Other parties, including Congress, won 44 seats. T J Longkumar, State Election Commissioner, said, “Out of 198 women candidates, 102, including eight in unreserved wards, emerged victorious, making a significant milestone in the history of elections in the State.”

These elections were held after nearly two decades. This time, 33 per cent of the civic body seats were reserved for women, which became a contentious issue. Apart from that, 36 town councils were supposed to go into elections but 15 town councils spread across six districts of eastern Nagaland boycotted the election on the call of the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation, which was demanding a separate administrative setup.