Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio wins by 15,824 votes. He secured 16,749 votes while Congress Seyievilie Sachu could manage only 1,198 votes.
Rio defeated Seyievilie Sachu of the Congres.
Rio got 15,646 votes, while his rival Sachu polled 1,078 votes.
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.
According to the latest Election Commission of India (ECI) result, Rio is currently leading ahead of Congress’ Syievilie Sachu.
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.