In chess as in politics

On the surface, the merger of the Nationalist Congress Party(NCP- Ajit Pawar) with seven MLAs with the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party(NDPP) appears to be about numbers as this has raised the latter’s number to 32 out of 60 elected members in the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly(NLA). The question that arises is why was this necessary when the current ‘oppositionless government’ headed by the NDPP-BJP coalition has the support of all 60 MLAs? Otherwise also, the NDPP-BJP coalition which has 37 MLAs is in a comfortable position to run the government. The remaining 23 MLAs from other parties are from- NCP(7), National People’s Party(5), Naga People’s Front(2), Lok Jan Shakti-RV(2), Republic Party of India-Athawale(2), Janata Dal United(1) and Independents(4). The ‘oppositionless government’, is a rare phenomenon in Indian politics. It may be mentioned that the phenomenon of ‘oppositionless’ or ‘party-less’ government first occurred during 2015 when the Congress with eight MLAs, and n the only opposition, merged with the NPF-BJP coalition under then chief minister T.R.Zeliang to form the first ever oppositionless government. Later prior to the 2018 assembly election, the newly formed NDPP fought its maiden election under current chief minister Dr.Neiphiu Rio and won 18 seats and along with BJP with 12 seats. The NPF won 26 seats and was the single largest party but could not woo its former ally the BJP from the folds of the NDPP and failed to retain power. The NDPP-BJP formed the government with a simple majority of 32 with the support of the lone JD(U) and Independent legislators. Later the NPP with two MLAs also joined the government. On July 22, 2021, the NPF announced its intention to join the state government, which was ratified by the PDA on August 11 and led to 21 of the 25 NPF members joining the NDPP-BJP coalition while two NPF members opted to remain out of the government. In the 2023 election several NPF legislators fought the election with NDPP tickets and overall the party won 25 seats, while NPF, contesting 22 seats won two. Later the NPF expressed support to the Rio-led coalition on the issue of solution to the Naga political issue. The internal political compulsion for the current merger of seven NCP legislators with NDPP was revealed by Ajit Pawar who split with his unlce to form the NCP(Ajit Pawar). Ajit claimed that the NCP legislators had merged/defected in order to get their jobs done. In the ultimate analysis the seven erstwhile NCP(Ajit Pawar) MLAs did to Ajit what he did to his uncle Sharad Pawar when he broke ranks to join the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra led by the BJP. The merger has indeed strengthened the hands of veteran chief minister Dr.Neiphiu Rio to ensure that no combination will ever be able to come anywhere near with numbers to topple his government. The merger has also cemented the reputation of Dr.Neiphiu Rio as the master strategist of politics in Nagaland. It is only expected that the post-merger will also see some changes in the functioning of the government by acting as a much needed push to the rudder for real peace and development through improved governance.