Nagaland poised for intense electoral battle in 2023 Assembly election
The HinduPublished : Feb 14, 2023 17:24 IST Political parties in the outgoing Nagaland Legislative Assembly formed an “opposition-less” government on September 18, 2021, to facilitate the ongoing Naga peace process between the Government of India and Naga rebel groups. The BJP dumped the NPF ahead of the last Assembly election after sharing power for 15 years and forged a pre-election alliance with the NDPP. Spotlight on eastern Nagaland The Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation had given a call to boycott the Assembly election until the Centre meets its demand for the creation of a “Frontier Nagaland” by carving out a separate State comprising six districts in eastern Nagaland, namely Mon, Tuensang, Kiphire, Shamator, Longleng, and Noklak. While the parties have drawn the battlelines, the hopes for a Naga peace accord are brighter after the NSCN and the Naga National Political Groups,a conglomerate of seven rebel groups, jointly declared “unconditional commitment” under the aegis of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation on January 14 to collaborate for the resolution of the political and historical rights of the Nagas on the basis of their respective agreements with the Government of India.