On March 7, 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the swearing-in ceremonies for the chief ministers of Meghalaya and Nagaland. In both of the northeastern states, the BJP is a junior partner to local parties.
Nagaland gets 1st-ever woman minister
Salhoutuono Kruse was sworn in as the first female minister in Nagaland’s history on Tuesday in Kohima, alongside the 72-year-old chief minister Neiphiu Rio, and nine other cabinet members. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also there.
Since Nagaland’s inception in 1963, Hekani Jakhalu and Kruse are the first women to have been elected to the state assembly, making history last week.
Chief minister for the fifth time
Days after his Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regained control of the state last week by winning 37 of 60 assembly seats, Rio took the oath of office as chief minister for the fifth time.
Moreover, Yanthungo Patton (BJP) and TR Zeliang (NDPP) were sworn in as Rio’s deputies by Governor La Ganesan. In the council of ministers, the NDPP has seven seats while the BJP has five. Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, JP Nadda, the leader of the BJP, and Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, were among those present at the ceremony.
The oath of office was given to Sangma, his two deputies Prestone Tynsong and Sniawbhaland Dhar, and nine other ministers by Governor Phagu Chauhan. The only female minister admitted was M. Ampareen Lyngdoh.
Following the assembly elections last month, the BJP and Sangma’s National People’s Party (NPP) formed an agreement to establish the new government. The NPP increased its total from the 20 seats it had won in the 2018 elections to 25, although it was still short of a majority in the assembly’s 60 members. The BJP was successful in winning two seats.
A Rainbow Coalition
Prestone Tynsong and Sniawbhalang Dhar, both from the NPP, took the oath of office as deputy chief ministers, demonstrating the power of the local party in the rainbow coalition that has retaken power.
Intriguingly, the BJP had called Sangma’s administration the “most corrupt” prior to the election, but it was one of the first parties to reach an agreement to form a government in the state after the vote.