With the Election Commission of India declaring the schedule for the biennial election to the Council of States or Rajya Sahba to fill the seats of retiring members, a lot of politicking must be going on in Kohima by now. The incumbent Member of Parliament in the Council of States, KG Kenye, will be retiring on April 2. One can only imagine the level of lobbying that will be pursuing in the corridors of power in Kohima in the next couple of weeks or so. The current member of Rajya Sabha was elected in 2016, when the NPF was in power. It is worth mentioning here that Nagaland had a similar oppositionless government in 2016 with NPF’s TR Zeliang as the Chief Minister and KG Kenye as the Secretary General of NPF.
KG Kenye is the 11th person to have been elected to the Rajya Sabha, the election to which is merely a customary procedure for appointing the ruling dispensation’s candidate of choice. Interestingly, KG Kenye is no longer the Secretary General of NPF and, even though NPF is now in the ‘ruling’ dispensation after forming the oppositionless UDA government, it is very likely that Kenye will not be re-elected again. In fact, only three persons have been elected twice to the Rajya Sabha from Nagaland – M Vero, Khyomo Lotha and HK Zhimomi – and Kenye is not likely to be the fourth to be elected twice.
Many names will come up but the one that might find prominence in the long list could be the name of the Secretary General of NDPP and Advisor to the CM, Abu Metha.