The three-time chief minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio resigned from his Lok Sabha seat. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan accepted the resignation of Rio with effect from February 22, 2018.
An official notification read,
“Neiphiu Rio, an elected member of Lok Sabha from Nagaland parliamentary constituency of Nagaland, has resigned his seat in Lok Sabha and his resignation has been accepted by the Speaker with effect from February 22, 2018.”
Rio until now headed the Naga People’s Front. He, in fact, had formed the party after leaving the Congress in 2002. In the meanwhile, he joined a new party-Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) to contest the assembly polls held yesterday.
Interestingly, the NDPP has a tie-up with the BJP. In the 60-member assembly, the NDPP is contesting on 40 seats while the BJP is fighting in the remaining 20 seats. On March 3 the poll results will be out.
He also won from the Northern Angami-II assembly seat in Kohima district. This came in after his rival took to withdraw his nomination.
Rio was the chief minister of Nagaland for three terms – 2003–08, 2008–13 and 2013–14.