A clean slate here: No minister with pending criminal cases in Nagaland

In the 60 member Nagaland assembly, the BJP won 12 seats, while its ally bagged 25. Interestingly for the second time in a row, there is no Opposition in the assembly.

In a welcome development, not a single minister in Nagaland have pending criminal cases against them.

A report prepared by the Nagaland Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms also says that 11 out of 12 ministers are crorepatis.

The report was prepared after analysing the self-sworn affidavits of 12 ministers , including the Chief Minister in the newly sworn in Nagaland government.

None of the ministers have pending criminal cases as per the set-sworn affidavits of the ministers, the report says.

Another interesting fact about the Nagaland assembly is that there is no opposition. All parties have backed the NDPP-BJP government in the state. The JD(U) on the other hand has dissolved its Nagaland unit and said that its lone MLA had supported the government without the knowledge of the party leadership.

Sharad Pawar, whose NCP won seven seats said that his party was supporting chief minister, Neiphiu Rio and the BJP.

Reacting to this development, Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma said that all parties in Northeast must understand that they would have to eventually support the BJP. Sarma also said that it was for the first time that a Prime Minister was attending the swearing-in-ceremony in Nagaland and Meghalaya. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is interested in the development of Northeast and not in the 2024 elections, he also added.

In the 60 member assembly the BJP won 12 seats, while its ally NDPP bagged 25.

Financial Background:

• Out of the 12 ministers analysed, 11 or 92 per cent are crorepatis according to the report. The average assets of the ministers is Rs 10.58 crores, the report also said.
• The minister with the highest declared total assets is Neiphiu Rio from Northern Angami-II (ST) constituency with assets worth Rs. 46.95 crores.
• The minister with the lowest declared total assets is P. Paiwang Konyak from Tizit (ST) constituency. His assets are worth Rs. 67.84 lakhs.

Other details:

• Four ministers in the Nagaland government have declared their age to be between 41 and 50 years. Eight ministers or 67 per cent have declared their age to be between 51 and 80 years.
• Out of the 12 ministers who were sworn into the Nagaland cabinet, only one is a woman, the Association for Democratic Reforms report also says.