Nagaland subsequent in Conrad Sangma-led NPP’s pan-Northeast mission

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: After its sterling efficiency in Manipur, the Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma-led National People’s Party (NPP) is now eying Nagaland.

In Manipur, the NPP had upstaged the Congress to turn out to be the principal opposition social gathering. It feels the Manipur outcomes may have a ripple impact in Nagaland.

The NPP had received two seats within the 2018 Nagaland polls however suffered a jolt quickly after when each MLAs jumped ship. With the state bracing for the elections once more, the NPP has began the groundwork.

“The Centre pumped so much money into Nagaland but we are yet to have the basic infrastructure. People are lying low but they see a good hope for them in the NPP because it is a sleeping lion,” the social gathering’s Nagaland president Andrew Ahoto Sema informed The New Indian Express.

“We are working undercurrent. Our election-related activities will be visible from September/October,” he added.

The Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) heads Nagaland’s ruling coalition the place the BJP is a key element.

Sema lamented the change within the Neiphiu Rio authorities’s “change is coming” tagline remained elusive.

“We have never had any finger-pointing on anything but we feel the state should flourish. It has been for nearly 20 years that the people of Nagaland are waiting to see the change which the CM had spoken about,” the NPP Nagaland chief mentioned.

He mentioned the social gathering was grooming the potential employees to make them election-ready. He claimed the NPP additionally obtained feelers from some MLAs of ruling events who have been keen to hitch it.

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“They have given us a word that they will join us at the last moment after everything goes off well. So, we have got some sympathisers and they know the NPP will surely do well in 2023,” Sema mentioned.

The NPP has nothing to lose. It can have an alliance with anyone, he added.

“The results in Manipur will surely have a ripple effect in Nagaland. We did not go negative integer but went high by winning seven seats, three more than the 2017 tally of four. But a national party like the Congress slumped. Our graph is slowly going up,” Sema mentioned.

He noticed that the regional events of the Northeast may do higher by aligning with the NPP.

“They can align with us and grow to a better level. This is our ideology. We espouse ‘one voice, one Northeast’ so that we have a common platform where we can raise our issues. We understand our people better. We have a dynamic leader in Conrad Sangma,” Sema mentioned.

He insisted the answer to the “Naga political problem” must also include infrastructure tasks aside from what could be agreed upon by the negotiating events.

“I feel the Centre should give us infrastructure projects. We need medical colleges. Currently, we have none. We need industries, roads, electricity, water, and development. We are so close to Myanmar but we don’t have an international airport,” Sema lamented.

The NPP heads the ruling coalition in Meghalaya and has 4 MLAs in Arunachal. It additionally has its presence in Assam.