Nagaland polls 2023 | BJP national spokesperson battling anti-incumbency, dissidence as he seeks third term
The Hindu
The thin winning margins of his last two successful campaigns are proving to be thorns for the sitting MLA Mmhonlumo Kikon.
Mmhonlumo Kikon has everything going for him – he is the party's national spokesperson, a published poet, and an advisor in the outgoing government.
Except for the anti-incumbency factor and dissidence among some of his former core associates, the BJP legislator could have almost surely been looking for a third straight term from Bhandari constituency in Wokha district.
Also, the thin winning margins of his last two successful campaigns are proving to be thorns for the sitting MLA.
"He has become inaccessible. He is no longer in touch with the grassroots. And he will have to pay for it with his seat," said Nyamo Odyuo, who was among the close associates of M Kikon in his last two election campaigns.
Odyuo has now shifted allegiance to the Naga People’s Front (NPF) and is busy canvasing support for its candidate, Achumbemo Kikon.
A Kikon was defeated by M Kikon by 254 votes and 312 votes in 2013 and 2018 state polls respectively. While the defeated candidate was from the NPF on both occasions, M Kikon had won on a NCP ticket in 2013 and had later joined the saffron party.
"We had worked with M Kikon when he was with the NCP and again when he moved to BJP. We are still not against the BJP. But giving the ticket to him again made us move our support to the NPF candidate," the NPF president of Bhandari legislative assembly constituency added.
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A delegation of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) led by its Polit Bureau member Varla Ramaiah has lodged a complaint with Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Superintendent of Police (SP) U. Ravi Prakash, alleging that former Minister Botcha Satyanarayana, his personal assistant and some officers had taken bribes from teachers for transferring them to the places of their choice.