Focus on women in Nagaland civic polls

Nagaland to hold historic urban local body elections with reserved seats for women after 20 years of resistance.

After 20 years of resistance to the reservation of seats for women, Nagaland will vote for the urban local bodies (ULBs) on Wednesday.

Of the 16 districts in the State, the civic polls will be held in 10 because of the non-participation of the communities in six eastern districts where the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO) exercises its clout.

Nagaland has three municipal councils – Dimapur, Kohima, and Mokokchung – and 36 town councils. Six of the 19 wards in Kohima, eight out of 23 wards in Dimapur, and six out of 18 wards in Mokokchung have been reserved for women.

State Election Commission officials said 64 candidates were elected unopposed while the fate of 253 will be decided by the voters on June 26. The ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) had the most candidates (45) winning unopposed followed by its ally Bharatiya Janata Party with seven, the Nationalist Congress Party with five, Congress with three, and the Naga People’s Front and independents with two each.

The run-up to the civic polls exposed the cracks in the partnership between the NDPP and the BJP. The two parties fielded candidates against each other without any seat-sharing agreement as was the case during the 2023 Assembly election.

The NDPP blamed the BJP for failing to retain the lone Nagaland Lok Sabha seat while the BJP said the NDPP should have been grateful for helping it form the government in 2018 despite finishing 13 seats short of the majority mark.

The Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) called for “one person, one vote” and “vote without influence” in Wednesday’s ULB election. The appeal is believed to be against the issue of proxy voting that has troubled Nagaland for long.