With eye on status of 'national party', six-member JD(U) delegation led by party chief Lalan Singh, visits Nagaland

PATNA: With eye on 2023 assembly polls in Nagaland, a six-member delegation of senior JD(U) leaders, led by the party national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, on Wednesday reached Kohima, the capital of Nagaland, on a three-day trip to meet various civil society groups and discuss poll strategies with its state leaders.
After registering a remarkable win in the 2019 Arunachal Pradesh assembly polls and the 2022 Manipur assembly polls, the Bihar’s ruling party is now preparing for Nagaland assembly polls, to be held in early 2023, with an aim to secure at least 6% of the polled votes, so that it can get the status of a national party.
The JD(U) has already acquired the status of a ‘state party’ in Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, and if it secures at least 6% of the polled votes in Nagaland, it would acquire the status of the state party in the fourth state. As per the election commission’s rule, a registered political party would be able to get the status of a ‘national party’ if it acquires the status of ‘state party’ in at least four states or Union territories. The JD(U) had secured more than 4.5% votes in the 2018 Nagaland polls and won one assembly seat.
“The delegation, comprising JD(U) national president Lalan Singh, party’s national general secretaries Afaque Ahmad Khan and Harshvardhan Singh, two Lok Sabha members Kaushalendra Kumar (MP from Nalanda) and Ramprit Mandal (MP from Jhanjharpur) and party’s Rajya Sabha member-elect Aneel Prasad Hegde, landed at Dimapur airport on Wednesday afternoon. From Dimapur, we travelled to Kohima by road,” Afaque, who is also the JD(U) In-charge for the northeast states, told TOI over phone.
He said the delegation was accorded warm welcome on arrival at Dimapur and Kohima by the party workers of the respective zones.
“The delegation has arrived in Nagaland also to pay its tribute to Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan, who had traversed the length and breadth of Naga areas as the member of a Peace Mission in 1960s to understand the pulse of Naga people and their political movement for independence. It was the ardent desire of JP, who conveyed to the Indian government in those days that a displeased Naga at border areas would be very detrimental to the interest of India,” Afaque said.
“The JD(U) still believe that the many of the 17-points submitted by the Peace Mission, formed by the Government of India and consisting of JP, Rev Michael Scott of England and Bimla Prasad Chaliha, the then CM of Assam – to the GOI stands relevant even as of today. … The legacy of JP in the history of Naga is remarkable and JD(U) is keen to keep this flame of honour for the Loknayak alive in the hearts of both the older and younger generations of Naga people,” the party general secretary Afaque said in a statement.
“The delegation will visit the memorial of veteran Naga leader Angami Zapu Phizo on Thursday. After that the delegation would hold meetings with different civil society groups of Naga people,” Afaque told TOI over phone from Kohima on Wednesday evening.