Nagaland gears up for assembly bypoll

Campaigning for the forthcoming bye-election to Northern Angami-II assembly seat in Kohima district is in full swing with candidates and party functionaries of NPF and BJP trying to woo electorates during the next three days.
Campaign will end at 4 pm on Monday while voting will be held on October 15.
Bye-election to the seat had been necessitated following former Chief Minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio's election to Lok Sabha in May.
The bye-election is a straight contest between NPF's Dr Neiphrezo Keditsu and BJP's Visasolie Lhoungu.
NPF brought in lone MP from Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio along with Chief Minister T R Zeliang and Cabinet Ministers as the star campaigner for the candidate while BJP had its National Secretary in charge of Nagaland and Ex-MP, Tapir Gao and MLA and BJP National Spokesperson and MLA from Bihar, Rameshwar Prasad Chaurasia as the star campaigners.

The seat assumes significance and it has become a prestige issue for the ruling NPF as it had been occupied continuously for five terms by Neiphiu Rio since 1989 till May 2014, including being three-times Chief Minister of the state.

Both NPF and BJP are allies in Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN), but pitted against each other both are working towards winning the seat.
Both the candidates are first timers as 37 year Neiphrezo of NPF is a contractor turned politician while 60 year old BJP candidate, Visasolie is retired bureaucrat.
The constituency has 30 villages with a total of 18,242 electorates to decide the fate of the two candidates.

Holding campaign rallies in almost all the villages, BJP concluded its public rallies today at Gariphema village while NPF completed it on October 7.