Nagaland’s longest-serving chief minister, Neiphiu Rio, is set to assume office for the fifth consecutive term after a convincing win for his party and its ally, the BJP.
Together, the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and the BJP secured 33 seats in the 60-member Assembly. The NDPP bagged 21 seats while the BJP got 12, the Election Commission said. The NDPP-BJP had fought the elections on a 40:20 seat-sharing arrangement.
Rio defeated the Congress’s Seyievelie Sachu, a greenhorn, in the Northern Angami II constituency.
Born into an Angami Naga family on November 11, 1950, Rio received his early education at Kohima’s Baptist English School and went on to study at the Sainik School in Purulia. He later studied at St Joseph’s College, Darjeeling, and returned to Nagaland to finish his graduation from Kohima Arts College.
An active student leader during his school and college days, Rio entered politics at a young age. He began his nearly five-decade-long political career as the president of the youth wing of the United Democratic Front in Kohima district in 1974 and later became its Nagaland president.
Of the eight state elections he has contested so far, Rio lost only the first one in 1987. He had fought that election as an Independent.
His political career took an upswing with his second attempt just two years later in 1989 on a Congress ticket.
Rio has served Nagaland in various capacities, including as home minister till 2002.
That year he quit Congress and was instrumental in reviving the cock symbol of the Naga People’s Front (NPF).
Rio dethroned three-time chief minister S.C. Jamir to take up the top post for the first time in 2003. He was dismissed as chief minister when President’s rule was imposed in the state in January 2008.
In the next election two months later, his party emerged as the single largest entity and Rio was invited to form the government as the leader of the NPF-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland. In the next election in 2013, the NPF won a thumping majority and Rio was re-elected as chief minister for the third term.
He continued in the post till 2014 when he decided to resign and become an MP. He used to tell reporters that his desire to join national politics stemmed from a “need” to be the voice of his people to press the Centre for an early solution to the Naga peace talks.
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