Guwahati: Nagaland became the country’s only opposition-free state on Wednesday, when legislator Y.M Yollow Konyak of the Naga People’s Front (NPF) was sworn in as minister.
The development occurred five months after all of the state’s ruling and opposition parties joined forces to form India’s first opposition-free government to address the Naga political dispute between the Centre and Naga organisations and other entities.
Assam and Nagaland Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi delivered the oath of office and secrecy to Konyak at Raj Bhavan in Kohima.
One cabinet position had been vacant since the death of then-Forest and Environment Minister C.M. Chang of the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) in October 2020.
The NPF was the only opposition party in Nagaland and in September last year, in a historic event, had created the UDA in coalition with the ruling NDPP and its ally Bharatiya Janata Party and two Independent MLAs.
Meanwhile, TR Zeliang, the leader of the NPF parliamentary party, has been named the new UDA Chairman, succeeding Rio.
Zeliang would have cabinet minister status, according to Nagaland government spokeswoman and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Neiba Kronu.
The NDPP has 21 MLAs, the NPF 25, the BJP 12, and two Independents in the 60-member assembly.
Before the 2018 Assembly elections, the NDPP and the BJP formed an alliance.
The opposition NPF proposed an all-party government in July last year to work together to find a quick solution to the Naga political crisis, and the opposition-free all-party government was unveiled in September.
With Wednesday’s induction, the 12-member cabinet currently includes four NDPP ministers, six BJP ministers, and one Independent MLA.
On June 16, last year, practically all of the parties in the state’s north-eastern region got together to form the Core Committee on Naga Political Issues (CCoNPI), which was led by Rio.