Kohima, June 4 (IANS) In a significant political development, Congress candidate S. Supongmeren Jamir wrested Nagaland’s sole Lok Sabha seat from the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), defeating its candidate Chumben Murry by a margin of 50,984 votes.
Jamir, who is also the state Congress chief, secured 4,01,951 votes while Murry, the consensus candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Alliance (PDA) which runs the government in the opposition-less state, bagged 3,50,967 votes.
Independent aspirant Hayithung Tungoe Lotha managed 6,232 votes.
The PDA, headed by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, comprises eight parties – the NDPP, the BJP, the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the National People’s Party (NPP), the Republican Party of India-Athawale, the Janata Dal-United, the Naga People’s Front (NPF), and the Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas.
Polling in Nagaland was held in the first phase of voting on April 19 amid a call by the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO) to people in six districts of the state’s eastern region to abstain from voting over its demand for a separate state. People in the six districts, which have over four lakh voters spread over 738 polling stations, remained indoors on April 19 responding to the ENPO’s call to press for its statehood demand for ‘Frontier Nagaland Territory’.
While the Congress wrested the state’s sole Lok Sabha seat from the ruling NDPP, the party, in a major setback, could not win a single seat in the 60-member Nagaland Assembly, for which elections were held on February 27 last year.
–IANS
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