NDPP wins Nagaland Lok Sabha bypoll

Kohima, May 31: Nagaland’s ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) candidate Tokheho Yepthomi on Thursday won the byelection to the state’s lone Lok Sabha constituency by 173,746 votes.

Yepthomi, the former Public Health Engineering minister who failed to retain his Dimapur- III assembly constituency in the February 27 assembly polls, defeated C. Apok Jamir of the opposition Naga People’s Front.

State’s Chief Electoral Officer Abhijit Sinha said Yepthomi secured 594,205 votes while Jamir, a former Rajya Sabha member and son of former Chief Minister and Odisha Governor S.C. Jamir polled 420,459 votes.

A total of 3,991 voters have opted the none of the above (NOTA) option.

“It is not my victory but the victory of the people across Nagaland. They have reposed faith and confidence on me. I will make all efforts to raise the problem of the state with the central government,” Yepthomi said.

The by-election was necessitated after sitting MP Neiphiu Rio resigned to become the state’s Chief Minister.

Rio is heading the People’s Democratic Alliance government which comprised of Bharatiya Janata Party, National People’s Party, Janata Dal-United and the lone Independent member. The alliance had supported Yephtomi in the by-poll while the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, which drew blank in the February 27 Nagaland Assembly elections, supported Jamir. (IANS)