Chasing solution rainbow

With political parties revving up their poll engines for the big race on February 27,2023, aspiring candidates cutting across party lines realise that the short burst between February 10 and February 27 or a total of around 17 days will be a do-or-die race that has been reduced from 10,000 to 1000 meters. The dominance of the NDPP-BJP alliance can be understood from the fact that all other political parties await the distribution of tickets by the ‘big two’ since those who will be denied are certainly going to try their luck with other parties. In the current 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly(NLA) the NDPP has 42 MLAs (21 NPF legislators merged with the party), while the BJP has 12 , NPF(a ruling UDF constituent) has four and two independent legislators. As per the pre-merger agreement, the 21 NPF legislators had been assured of NDPP tickets for the assembly election. Even the NDPP’s own 21 legislators have as much merit to expect ticket since they are sitting MLAs. Even the two independent MLAs have been more or less like NDPP members would be hoping to contest under NDPP tickets. With 42 + 2 or 44 claimants, the NDPP can but contest only in 40 assembly seats while leaving 12 for its BJP ally. The fact of the matter is that issuing ticket is not as simple a matter since the demand outweighed the supply and also many other internal considerations have to be factored and also the fact that there is hardly much time left before nomination ends on February 7. As much as the general public have been battered by the loud voices for solution and deferment of election and the statements of senior political leaders promising to convince New Delhi to secure solution under any circumstances; these only fuelled a false sense of hope. People believed in them but somehow those in the know had chosen to speak to the gallery of being committed to the ideal and not talking straight that New Delhi was not going to postpone or defer elections for the sake of solution. The BJP government at the Centre and the newly formed NPF-led government in the state were thrown into the same boat due to political opportunism in 2003. That the government at the Centre changed in 2004 did not lead to parting of ways between NPF and BJP. The NPF and BJP parted ways over non-political issue when NPF president Dr.Shürhozelie chose to bring faith over political friendship. In addition, NPF wasn’t keen on giving more than ten seats to BJP in 2018. Then when NDPP was formed it welcomed BJP with a seat sharing pact for 20 seats. In all the decades since 2003, in a post-Congress period when the regional NPF formed by former Congressmen ruled the state, the political solution was promised within three months of NPF coming to power in 2003. Today, many political leaders want to distance themselves away from having done precious little to secure solution. In this even BJP which was in alliance since 2003 cannot be absolved of blame. The most critical question is why, in 2018 when the all CSOs and political parties wanted to push Delhi to the corner and obtain solution( where BJP was also a signatory); the BJP broke ranks and reneged on its own promise by filing nominations in 2018 as NDPP happily followed. And the rest is history when peace bonanza became a gift for ‘No Solution is Solution’.