Guwahati: The Bharatiya Janata Party is in a sticky situation in Nagaland after a huge number of ticket applicants from the NDPP and previous lawmakers decided to run in the upcoming assembly elections.
It will be in violation of the seat-sharing formula that was recently agreed upon with its ally NDPP in New Delhi for the upcoming election if the BJP gives tickets to all those who recently joined the party in the goal of earning a ticket, as well as to all other hopefuls and present MLAs.
The finalised seat-sharing mechanism between the BJP and the NDPP for the 2023 election allocates 20 seats to the BJP and 40 to the NDPP. For the elections in 2023, several state-level BJP leaders have asked for either 25 (BJP) and 35 (NDPP) or 30-30. This demand has been denied by the BJP high command.
The situation within the BJP has gotten worse due to the throngs of enraged supporters of unsuccessful ticket candidates and those who battled for the BJP ticket but were refused seats.
On January 22, BJP candidates’ supporters gathered in front of Y Patton, the deputy chief minister of Nagaland and head of the BJP legislative who resides in Dimapur, and organised a demonstration. They desired that their nominee be given a seat. Reports claim that Patton and Imna Along, the state BJP president, were meeting at the time when the candidate’s angry supporters stormed the building.
When contacted, a senior BJP party member confirmed that tickets would likely be distributed and decided this week. Although the BJP is a national party and all members are obligated to obey the national high command, the state BJP functionary recognised that the party has faced hostility.
The BJP’s problems have been made worse by a lack of contact between the president of the state unit and the party leader in the legislature on a number of different areas.
A serious issue has arisen as a result of speculation that a number of “winnable BJP candidates” are being denied either a party ticket or the opportunity to run for office.
The state BJP is being pressured by ticket aspirants, but there is also a chance that some seats that the BJP was likely to win—and some seats that the NDPP currently holds—could be transferred to the BJP in exchange for some of those seats.
On January 20, it was widely believed on social media that NDPP and state BJP delegations had roughly assigned the 13 Pughoboto assembly constituency to sitting NDPP legislator Y Vikheho Swu, who had previously run as NPF before joining NDPP, in the presence of union home minister Amit Shah and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. The BJP faced a challenge as a result.