January 15, 2013 

The Naga People’s Front (NPF) and the opposition Indian National Congress in Nagaland have officially begun their race to the 12th Nagaland Legislative Assembly. The NPF’s central leadership met, January 14, in Kohima and instituted a high-level ‘Core Election Committee’ comprising of NPF President Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu and Chief Minister of Nagaland Neiphiu Rio to decide on prospective candidates to contest in the elections. Likewise, the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) met in DImapur today as well, to ‘compile’ the names of its prospective candidates and ready the list for the All India Congress Committee (AICC) scrutinizers who are confirmed to arrive in the State on January 22.Monday was an eventful day for the two political parties as each of their leaderships met to chart a coure of action that would decide Nagaland’s new State leadership. Considering the current winds, the Congress is hoping to collar the chair on the poll planks of law and order and corruption, while the ruling NPF is understood to be ready to wave the development plank before Nagaland’s electorate. Media official of the NPF, Abu Metha disclosed tonight to The Morung Express that the party’s central leadership has instituted a ‘core’ election committee to undertake the task of selecting the candidates for the coming elections. According to Metha, the regional party’s election committee is a seven-member body comprising senior leaders such as NPF President Dr. Shurhozelie and Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio. The names of all the committee members could not be obtained at the time of filing this news report.“We have not yet finalized the list (of prospective candidates) but a core, election committee has been decided and the list of names would be made very soon,” Metha told this newspaper. When queried whether the party has started receiving requests for its tickets, the NPF official said there were none so far.    In the other camp, that of the opposition Congress, things seem to be a bit different if sources are to be believed. Aspiring candidates are already up and about for Congress tickets. NPCC President SI Jamir told this newspaper tonight that the Congress leadership held its first meeting, concerning the issue of tickets, today. When queried if the Congress tickets to aspiring poll runners have been decided upon, the Congress stalwart said “not exactly; today was the first meeting where we collected the names of candidates and compiled them.”   Jamir told that applications are already coming in from the districts. In fact, the State’s top Congress leadership’s meeting today was to discuss and ‘compile’ the list of prospective individuals who have asked for the Congress ticket. Jamir then disclosed that AICC scrutinizers – AICC general secretaries Veerappa Moily and Mukul Wasik and Nagaland in-charge Luizinho Faleiro – are scheduled to arrive in Dimapur on January 22. They will decide to which of the nominated names the Congress ticket would go to.   The Congress leadership will be meeting again on January 21 to discuss the list before submitting the prospective names to the AICC. The AICC will decide the tickets, Jamir said.

Source:Northeasttoday