BJP-NDPP alliance retains power in Nagaland; Neiphiu Rio to be CM for fifth term

As three of the northeastern states viz. Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland went for state assembly polls on February this year, counting of the votes took place on March 2 simultaneously for all three states.
Nagaland which went on assembly polls on February 27 is all set to have BJP-NDPP alliance government while CM Neiphiu Rio is set to assume office as Chief Minister for the fifth consecutive term. The state assembly of Nagaland comprising of 60 seats had an alliance government pre-election of National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and exit polls had predicted their return to power with much greater margin. As votes were counted for the 59 out of 60 contested assembly seats and final results out NDPP won 25 out of 40 seats it had contested with BJP winning 12 out of 20 it had contested thus crossing a majority mark with the total tally of 37 seats.
Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) won 1 seat, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) won 2 seats, Naga People’s Front won 2 seats, National People’s Party won 5, Nationalist Congress Party won 7, Republican Party of India (Athawale) won 2 and independents won 4 seats.
This election for the Nagaland state assembly proved to be a historic one as two women candidates won in the assembly election; in its 13 state assembly elections so far, no women candidates had been elected to the state assembly. Hekani Jakhalu of Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party contesting from Dimapur-III constituency won with a margin of 1536 votes while Salhoutuonuo Kruse also of NDPP contesting from Western Angami constituency won by just seven votes.