The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to forge an alliance with the Nationalist Democratic People’s Party (NDPP), a newly launched party led by former chief minister Neiphiu Rio for the 27 February assembly poll in Nagaland.

The BJP has ended its 15-year-old alliance with its partner, the ruling Naga People’s Front (NPF), the Indian Express reported.

The decision to form this alliance with NDPP was taken in New Delhi on Friday (2 February) at a meeting between BJP president Amit Shah and Rio in the presence of the BJP’s Nagaland president Visasolie Lhoungu, the party’s state media cell convener, K James Vizo, said on Saturday (3 February).

Vizo said the NDPP would contest 40 of the 60 seats in the state assembly, while the BJP would field candidates in the remaining 20 seats.

The BJP is the only party till date to announce that it will contest the election.

Eleven parties including the ruling NPF on 29 January had decided not to contest the 27 February polls, agreeing to the demand of tribal bodies and civil society groups to resolve the protracted Naga political problem first.

Later, the BJP had announced it would contest the polls. The state BJP sources here said the party’s grassroots workers were against the party forging any pre-poll alliance with anyone.

The alliance comes a week after all political parties announced that they would boycott the assembly elections, demanding an end to the insurgency issue. However, the BJP backed out of the boycott, saying it would contest the election to find a solution to the vexed issue. It also said that holding elections in Nagaland was a constitutional necessity. This has now resulted in other parties, including the Congress, deciding to contest the elections. The last day for nominations to be filed for the elections is 7 February.