Who Is Neiphiu Rio? Veteran Nagaland Politician Set To Be CM For Record 5th Term
Rio personally defeated Congress' Seyievelie Sachu, a political debutant helping to emasculate the grand old party in the state where it was formerly entrenched.
Neiphiu Rio, Nagaland's longest-serving chief minister, is ready to take office for a fifth consecutive term following a comfortable victory for his party and its ally, the BJP.
The two parties have earned 33 seats in Nagaland's 60-member assembly.
With this victory, the septuagenarian leader has beaten the record of veteran leader S C Jamir, who ruled the northeastern state three times.
Rio personally defeated Congress' Seyievelie Sachu, a political debutant, in the Northern Angami II constituency, helping to emasculate the grand old party in the state where it was formerly entrenched.
The Political Journey Of Neiphiu Rio:
Neiphiu Rio was an active student leader in high school and college, he entered politics at a young age. He began his nearly five-decade political career in 1974 as the president of the United Democratic Front's youth branch in Kohima district, subsequently becoming its Nagaland president.
Rio has only lost one of the eight state elections he has run in, in 1987. He ran for office as an independent candidate at the time.
His political career took off after his second attempt, just two years later in 1989, after joining Congress. After that first tentative triumph, there was no turning back for him, and Rio went on to win the succeeding polls. He served his country in a number of capacities, most notably as home minister in Jamir's ministry until 2002.
That year, however, he left Congress and was influential in resurrecting the Naga People's Front's cock symbol.
Rio Became Nagaland's CM For The First Time In 2003:
Rio deposed Jamir and became chief minister for the first time in 2003. When President's Rule was imposed in the state in January 2008, he was removed as chief minister.
Rio was invited to form the government as the leader of the NPF-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland in the following election two months later when his party emerged as the single largest.
In the 2013 state election, the NPF achieved a landslide victory, and Rio was re-elected for a third term as chief minister.
Break From The State:
He held the position until 2014 when he decided to step down and run for national Parliament. He used to tell reporters that his desire to enter national politics stemmed from a "need" to be the voice of his people in pressuring the Centre to resolve the Naga peace talks as soon as possible.
On February 9, 2018, he resigned from the Lok Sabha and returned to state politics.
Amid Party's Internal Strife, Rio Joined NDDP:
Following internal strife inside his former home party, the NPF, Rio joined the newly created Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP).
He was chosen to lead the NDPP and was successful in breaking the then-alliance partnership between the NPF and the BJP. Rio, a great strategist, then ran in the 2018 state elections on a pre-poll deal with the saffron party.
The alliance won 30 seats, with the regional party winning 18 and the saffron party winning 12, and formed the government with the backing of two NPP MLAs, one JD(U) MLA, and an Independent Member, ending the NPF's 15-year reign in the state.
Rio's continuous electoral victory, according to H A Hongnao Konyak, vice-president of Konyak Union (KU), is due to his ability to forge partnerships.
"He knows that his party may not be able to sail through on its own. Hence, he enters into carefully thought-out alliances. Even this time, he continued the alliance with the party in power at the Centre and made them concede majority seats to his NDPP," Konyak told PTI.
The NDPP-BJP pre-election coalition has again contested the Nagaland election on the same 40:20 seat-sharing formula as in 2018, with the agreement that Rio will be the face of the new government.
(With Inputs From PTI)
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