Nagaland election results: CM Neiphiu Rio marks his victory with 17,045 votes

With over 50 years of experience in politics, Rio started his career with the erstwhile regional party United Democratic Front and later joined Congress.

Dominated for the last seven assembly elections, Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio has won the 2023 assembly election. He got 17,045 votes while his rival Congress' Syievilie Sachu received 1,221 votes. Rio is the chief ministerial candidate of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance.

Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio.(ANI)

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With over 50 years of experience in politics, Rio started his career with the erstwhile regional party United Democratic Front. Later he stayed in Congress for a decade and broke ties with the party over the long-standing Naga political crisis in the state.

Rio is the state's longest serving chief minister and if the exit polls were to believe, he would get another term to serve as NDPP-BJP coalition was seen comfortably crossing the halfway mark.

In 2018, the NDPP-BJP contested the election with a 40:20 formula (40 seats for the NDPP and 20 for the BJP) and the same is being followed this time. Five years ago, though the Naga Peoples’ Front (NPF) won 26 seats, the NDPP, which bagged 17 seats, and the BJP that got 12 were able to form government.