KOHIMA: The day of voting for a new Nagaland state assembly is just a week away and political leaders and their supporters are busy campaigning for the candidates of their own or their coalition partners.
As the campaigning picks up speed, anti-incumbency factors have also come into play for some candidates of the state. One of them is Mmhonlumo Kikon who is running for the seat of the Bhandari Constituency of the Wokha district in the Nagaland Assembly polls for the third time. He had won by a very small margin in the previous two elections in the state.
One of his close associates during the previous two election campaigns mentioned that he had become inaccessible during the course of the last few years. He has lost touch with the grass root level in recent times he added. And the close, associate Nyamo Odyuo shifted his alliance towards the Naga People’s Front candidate Achumbemo Kikon instead of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Achumbemo Kikon was defeated by Mmhonlumo Kikon by 254 votes and 312 votes in 2013 and 2018 state polls respectively. While the defeated candidate was from the Naga People’s Front on both occasions, Mmhonlumo Kikon had won on a Nationalist Congress Party ticket in 2013 and had later joined the Bharatiya Janta Party.
His local supporters have however maintained that he will be able to win the elections by a huge margin this year. Even the Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is set to campaign for him ahead of the upcoming polls. He is not only an MLA with the previous Nagaland Assembly but also the party's national spokesperson and a published poet
As the youth supporters go around campaigning for the 2-time representative, it remains to see if the public of Bhandari Constituency decides to keep their previous representative or select a new one.
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