Nearly a month after the government faced a logjam due to the internal crisis within the ruling NPF, Nagaland Governor P.B. Acharya, who returned to Kohima, is believed to have opted for convening a special Assembly session within this week.
Highly placed sources told this Correspondent that the Governor, in consideration of the directive from the union home ministry, was likely convene the session for a floor test when all 60 MLAs would be asked to be present.
The state cabinet had on January 15, recommended to the Governor to summon the house for a floor test for January 20 in order to clear the logjam where chief minister T.R. Zeliang could prove that he enjoys majority support of the house.
Meanwhile, another source told this Correspondent that the NPF (Noke) representatives would be meeting the Governor on Monday but this could not be confirmed.
How the floor test would go still remains a matter of speculation. The T.R. Zeliang government has the support of 16 NPF (excluding the Speaker) +2 (NCP & JDU) +7 Independent legislators totaling 25.
The NPF (Kaito) has 21 NPF +1 Ind=22. The BJP has 4 MLAs and would be expected to vote according to the whip issued by the official party leader and whip Paiwang Konyak.
With the Congress having eight members in the Assembly, it would be interesting to see which way they would vote during the floor test.
Meanwhile, speaking to this Correspondent, DAN spokesperson and parliamentary secretary School Education Yitachu, said that the ball was in the Governor’s court as there was no other option but to go through the constitutional procedure. He said “time has come to let the people know the truth”.
Yitachu said the sitting chief minister could be removed only through a vote in the assembly . He also took a jab asking “if my friends in the dissident camp were afraid of the floor test, then why had they taken Naga people for a ride for almost a month?”
He further claimed that even “dissident spokesperson” Imkong L. Imchen wanted to join Kohima camp but since he “fooled the other members at Sovima camp” he could not run away from them.
Meanwhile Supreme Court has accepted the petition (SLP) filed by the NCP against the three former NCP MLAs- Dr. T.M Lotha, Imtilemba Sangtam and Mmhonlumo Kikon- whose disqualification by the Speaker was overruled by the Gauhati High Court Kohima Bench and later confirmed by the principal bench court.
The three had claimed merger of the NCP with BJP on June 16, 2014 on the plea that they fulfilled provisions under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
Highly placed sources told this Correspondent, that the apex court has fixed the hearing on February 10. Sources also disclosed that the case was taken up with the Supreme Court by the NCP legal cell vide a Special Leave Petition (SLP).
Friday, February 20, 2026