NPF facing shortage of candidates, to contest only 30-35 of 60 seats: Legislature party leader Azo Nienu

Nienu told Northeast Live that NPF, compared to NDPP and BJP is facing resource constraint which is why people are not interested in taking NPF tickets.

In an interesting revelation, Azo Nienu, legislature party leader of NPF said that his party is facing a shortage of candidates which is why the party, one of the two regional parties of Nagaland, is forced to contest in only half the seats in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

Participating in Northeast Live’s debate show Northeast Tonight, hosted by Editor-in-Chief Wasbir Hussain, Nienu said that NPF is facing a crisis as far as candidates are concerned therefore the party was forced to cut down on the number of candidates it is fielding this time.

When asked why NPF is contesting in only 30-35 seats which is half of the total 60 seats of Nagaland Assembly despite the fact that the party wants to defeat NDPP and BJP, Nienu said that NPF wants to contest all the 60 seats but the party does not have enough candidates.

“These elections are very competitive. BJP, NDPP are very rich parties. Whereas my party, we are hand-to-mouth. Nobody wants to take a ticket. That is a fact,” Nienu said confirming that NPF is facing a shortage of candidates.

Worth mentioning here that NPF was deserted by its veteran leader and former Nagaland CM TR Zeliang who jumped ship and joined NDPP, ally of BJP in Nagaland and is now a Parliamentary Board member. He is all set to contest the upcoming polls.

In May last year, 21 of the 25 NPF MLAs had joined NDPP. Several NDPP leaders have recently joined BJP.
NDPP and NPF are the two leading regional parties of Nagaland.

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