BJP and Nagaland's NDP renews alliance ahead of state assembly elections

The BJP and its government partner in Nagaland, the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), have renewed their alliance and decided to run in the assembly elections early next year using the same seat-sharing formula as in 2018.

The alliance was reaffirmed during a meeting in New Delhi between BJP President JP Nadda and Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), the northeast's miniature version of the NDA, shared a joint statement from the BJP and the NDPP in which the two parties "mutually agreed to continue the alliance with seat sharing in the forthcoming elections to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly of 40:20, wherein the NDPP will contest in 40 seats and the BJP will contest in 20 seats."

“There will be no friendly contest in any constituency. A Core Committee of NDPP and BJP Members will formulate the election strategy to decide the seats at an appropriate time to decide in which seat each party will contest respectively,” the joint two parties said in the statement.

"The NDPP-BJP Alliance has grown from strength to strength and continued to win the popular support of the people in the past four years having emerged victorious in elections to the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and assembly bye elections," as stated in the joint statement.

The NDPP-BJP alliance was formed in 2018 ahead of the assembly elections, in which the NDPP ran in 40 seats and the BJP ran in 20. The pre-election alliance received the people's mandate to form the government.