Five in fray in Nagaland

With no candidate withdrawing nominations on the day of withdrawal on Monday, five remained in the fray for the May 5 elections to lone parliamentary seat in Nagaland.

With no candidate withdrawing nominations on the day of withdrawal on Monday, five remained in the fray for the May 5 elections to lone parliamentary seat in Nagaland.

Election office sources said, only the standby candidates of Congress and Nagaland People's Front (NPF) respectively withdrew their papers last week, leaving five contenders to try their luck in the hustings which is being fought mainly between the ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) and the Opposition Congress on the poll plank of Naga political problem and its amicable settlement.

DAN fielded NPF MLA and Congress deserter Wangyuh Konyak as a consensus candidate of BJP-JD(U)-NPF alliance against the Congress MP of the dissolved Lok Sabha K Asungba Sangtam.

During 1998 and 1999 parliamentary elections Asungba Sangtam got elected when the Congress was in power in Nagaland. But before last year's assembly election, many Congress leaders, including the present Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, deserted the party and joined the NPF.

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