Dimapur, October 2 (MExN): The National People’s Party (NPP) has condemned the Naga People’s Front (NPF) over what it termed the ‘poaching’ of five of its members from the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly, dismissing the move as a forced defection rather than a legitimate merger.
In a statement issued on October 1, 2026, NPP National Vice President Vevoyi D Vadeo stated that the party completely rejects the crossing and the terminology used to cover it.
“This was not a merger. A merger is a decision of two parties. What happened today is the taking of five men who won on the NPP ticket, with NPP workers, on an NPP vote,” Vadeo said, emphasizing that the 2023 electorates voted for the NPP and its mandate remains with the voters rather than moving with the shifting legislators.
Highlighting that the NPF already commands a majority in the 60-member House—where every party is aligned with the government in an opposition-less Assembly—the NPP leader asserted that the five additional members alter nothing regarding governance or power dynamics, only swelling the size of the NPF bench.
Vadeo further criticized the misuse of the opposition-less House, which was originally instituted to speak with one voice on the core Naga political question. Instead, he claimed, the NPF has utilized this framework as an instrument to hunt and absorb MLAs from coalition partners in broad daylight.
Pointing out that other ruling partners like the BJP and LJP (Ram Vilas), alongside independents and JD(U) members, continue to retain their distinct identities, the NPP warned that no partner in the arrangement is secure, calling the latest incident a stark warning.
Referring to reports by the Association for Democratic Research (ADR)—which highlighted Nagaland as having a high frequency of legislative party-switching and the NPF as a major gainer, largely following the 2025 NDPP–NPF merger—the NPP argued that collecting numbers does not answer public criticism of governance or address the Naga political issue.
Asserting that the defecting legislators have no cover under the label of a merger, Vadeo maintained that the seats belong to the people who elected them under the NPP banner. He announced that the NPP is examining the official notification and will pursue all legal remedies permitted under the Constitution and the Tenth Schedule, emphasizing that “a poaching does not turn clean because a paper has been issued.”
“The question before Nagaland is blunt. Does the vote cast in 2023 hold until the next election, or does it hold only until the NPF decides to take it?” the statement concluded.
