THE Election Commission of India has given due recognition to the Nationalist Democratic Movement (NDM) as a political party in Nagaland. According to an official release, the Commission had asked the party to intimate its preference of symbol to be allotted as reserved symbol of the party in Nagaland or indicate three symbols in order of preference and also to submit the design and drawing of the symbols immediately. It might be recalled here that the NDM in the February 26 Assembly polls in the State fielded 25 candidates with a distinct manifesto. Contesting with its symbol of torch, the party had garnered ten per cent of the total valid votes polled in 60 Assembly constituencies, winning five seats. However, before formation of the new government, the party received a major setback when two of its members—the Social Security and Welfare Minister K Hollohon and the Minister of State for Geology, Mining and Excise Kipili Sangtam—defected from the party and joined the Nagaland Peoples’ Front (NPF), the major constituent of the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) coalition. The party received another blow when two other legislators S Heno and S Hukavi deserted the party and joined the NPF in July this last. The party now has only one MLA, former Housing and Homeguards Minister E. T. Ezung in the DAN ministry, who was sacked from the portfolio on June 29 last.

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