There is much speculation about the eventual merger between the two major regional political parties of Nagaland \u2013NDPP and NPF- both of who got engaged through the formation of United Democratic Alliance(UDA). Whether the engagement will lead to a marriage will be known after March this year when results of the assembly elections in Manipur as also with four other states, will be declared. The NDPP is presently married to the BJP through a pre-poll alliance in 2018. The BJP separated from the NPF with whom it had a contract since 2003 after the latter refused to give more seats. The BJP then rebounded and rushed to the waiting arms of the NDPP, after the latter offered 20 seats. The NPF became the single largest party when it won 26 seats while the NDPP came a distant second with 18 seats and BJP not far behind with 12 seats. However, when it came to forming the next government the NDPP and BJP managed to get the numbers by wooing the two NPP, one JDU and one independent legislators. NDPP again succeeded in swallowing the two NPP and one JDU legislators to raise its number to 21. Even so, during the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the NPF was jolted when seven of its legislators openly defied the party and declared support to the NDPP candidate and also for the NDPP candidate in the byelection. Both also took a different path over continuation of playing the role as \u2018facilitators\u2019 for the Naga political issue. NPF had criticised NDPP for keeping it in the dark despite being an important member of the Joint Legislators Forum(JLF) on Naga political issue and further having done precious little in pushing for solution. In a bid to prove one is a better adherent to the \u201cequi-closeness\u201d policy, both NPF and NDPP parted ways when NPF formed its own Political Affairs Mission(PAM) in August 2020 for Naga political issue. Of course, no amount of rhetoric since 2003 has made any difference in securing solution even when negotiations officially concluded by October 31,2019. Currently the storyline of political jargon is that expressed commitment for solution is a popular and convenient vehicle for symbiotic relationship. NPF has initiated the overture to unify both parties. The current election campaign in Manipur has witnessed how being strange bedfellows of politics has pitted NPF and NDPP to one side and BJP to the other. Strangely in Manipur, while NPF is part of the BJP-led coalition both however, are rivals for ten assembly seats in the hill districts of Senapati, Ukhrul, Tamenglong etc. Again, in Nagaland, BJP and NDPP are pre-poll alliance partners while NPF was the common foe till the latter became part of UDA. In Manipur, NDPP and NPF have ganged up where chief minister Neiphiu Rio, who is the leader of the house the UDA of which BJP is an important constituent, has campaigned for the NPF. What is happening may not be a political comedy but certainly close being like a comedy of errors that describe the goings on between NPF and NDPP, reflecting the tenuous relationships between its top leaders. The election results in Manipur will have an impact on the three in Nagaland especially as the state itself will go to the polls in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is much speculation about the eventual merger between the two major regional political parties of Nagaland \u2013NDPP and NPF- both of who got engaged through the formation of United Democratic Alliance(UDA). Whether the engagement will lead to a marriage will be known after March this year when results of the assembly elections in Manipur […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}