GUWAHATI
Fresh from an upset in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election, the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) swept the urban local body (ULB) elections in Nagaland on Saturday.
The NDPP rules Nagaland in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other regional political entities. They did not go for a seat-sharing agreement for the polls to three municipal corporations — Dimapur, Kohima, and Mokokchung — and 21 town councils.
Also Read:Focus on women in Nagaland civic polls
The elections were held for the first time after 20 years, and 33% of the seats or wards were reserved for women. The polls were supposed to be held for 36 town councils but could not be conducted in 15 town councils across six districts where the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation, demanding a separate administrative set-up, gave a boycott call.
State Election Commission officials said the NDPP won 152 seats across the municipal and town councils. The independents won 56 seats, while the BJP won 25 seats. All the other parties, including the Congress, collectively won 44 seats.
“Out of 198 women candidates, 102, including eight in unreserved wards, emerged victorious, making a significant milestone in the history of elections in the State,” State Election Commissioner T.J. Longkumer said.
Women also created two records. The youngest winner was 22-year-old Nzanrhoni I. Mozhui of the BJP, who won the Bhandari Ward 1 seat, while the 71-year-old Sibeule of the NDPP was the oldest. She won from Peren Ward No. 6.
Nagaland’s ULB polls were held on June 26 with 523 candidates in the fray. Earlier, 64 candidates — 45 of them from the NDPP — had won uncontested.
The first ULB elections were held without reservation for women in 2004, three years after the Municipal Act came into effect. The government issued a notification for the next ULB polls in 2012 but the tribal bodies opposed it because of the quota clause.
In September 2012, the 60-member State Assembly passed a resolution to exempt Nagaland from the purview of the Constitution’s Article 243T, which deals with the quota for women, but revoked it in 2016.
In 2017, the State government’s bid to hold the elections with 33% reservation for women backfired. Protestors attacked and set ablaze government buildings in parts of the State, and two people died when the security forces retaliated. According to the tribal bodies, reserving seats for women infringed on the Naga customary laws, as enshrined in Article 371(A) of the Constitution, which protects the State’s traditional way of life.
The violence in 2017 also made T.R. Zeliang quit as the Chief Minister, and the State government declared the poll process null and void. Some women’s organisations reacted by approaching the Gauhati High Court and the Supreme Court.
In 2023, the apex court directed the Nagaland State Election Commission to notify and hold the polls with a 33% quota for women. The State government paved the way for the poll by making certain amendments to the Municipal Act that were largely acceptable to those who opposed the reservation of seats for women.
