The 13 Pughoboto Assembly Constituency held a peaceful protest today after disagreements over seat allocation in Pughoboto erupted, finally culminating in a ticket dispute at the state BJP headquarters in Kohima. This follows the declaration on Thursday of a 40:20 seat sharing deal between the NDPP and the BJP.
Pughoboto was contested by the BJP in 2018 as part of the seat-sharing agreement. Dr. A. Sukhato Sema was the BJP candidate, but Y. Vikheho Swu of the NPF won by a mere 70 votes.
Sukhato is reportedly re-running for the BJP ticket, whereas Swu, upon his victory, switched to the NDPP from the NPF; thus, Rio is compelled to seat Swu.
However, peaceful demonstrators feel that the 13 Pughoboto AC seat is a BJP seat because they lost by such a small margin in the last election and so believe that their position is very excellent this time.
According to sources, Pughoboto was a prominent topic of discussion during the Thursday talks in New Delhi, and it was Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister and BJP floor leader in the Assembly, Y. Patton, who argued that because the BJP has agreed to 20 seats in 2018, the seat share should be increased to 25.
Unlike in Meghalaya, where the BJP dumped the Conrad Sangma-led NPP, the BJP preserved the 40:20 seat-sharing arrangements with the NDPP in Nagaland, despite calls to make the relationship equal.
According to sources, suspicions are circulating that Rio took use of his personal friendship with a major North East politician.
However, taking Bihar and Maharashtra as examples, it is safe to argue that the BJP never betrays their allies. Despite gaining 75 seats and JDU 42, the BJP permitted Nitish Kumar to become Chief Minister in Bihar. In Maharashtra, when the whole Shiv Sena-BJP debacle took place, despite BJP retaining a big majority of 115, Eknath Shinde, a Sena member, was appointed Chief Minister.
Concerning Sangma’s NPP, it had already been reported that with the arrest of Meghalaya BJP vice-president Bernard N Marak, relations with the Sangma-led NPP had worsened. This is not surprising given that Modi 2.0 has been continually striving to distance itself from politicians who tarnish the party’s image, either by reshuffling cabinet members or sweeping them under the rug.
Therefore, the reasons for BJP sticking with 40:20 could be a mere principle of loyalty to allies.
“I feel the centre prefers Rio a lot,” a political observer told Mokokchung Times adding that “maybe it is due to the Naga Political issue.”
“If there is a new government, the discussion will have to start over,” the expert noted.