New Delhi: Neiphiu Rio, Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDDP) chief, took oath as the Nagaland Chief Minister today, resuming office for a record fifth consecutive term after a big win in the polls.

The oath-taking ceremony was held at Raj Bhavan in Kohima where Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma were seen in attendance.

Rio on Saturday tendered his resignation as Chief Minister of Nagaland to Governor La Ganesan and staked claim to form the new government in the state. 

The pre-poll alliance of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and BJP in Nagaland had secured a total of 37 out of 60 seats. 

Seventy-two-year-old Rio will lead an all-party government with no opposition in his state. Nagaland had an all-party government twice before but in both cases parties came together in a bid to have a united front for tripartite talks with the Central government and former rebels of the NSCN (IM) to finalize a long-awaited peace accord in the border state.

Rio retained the Northern Angami-II Assembly constituency, defeating Seyievilie Sachu of the Congress by a mammoth margin of 15,824 votes. He garnered a total of 17,045 votes, which is 92.87 per cent of the total votes polled in the seat, as per ANI’s report. 

All other parties in the state subsequently extended their letters of support to the Rio-led alliance.

Apart from this, Nagaland made history by electing its first women legislators in its 60 years of statehood. The state, which has had 13 Assemblies so far, never had a woman MLA before Thursday’s result. 

The two elected women lawmakers, Hekhani Jakhalu and Salhoutuonuo Kruse of the ruling NDPP defeated the sitting MLAs in Western Angami and Dimapur-III seats respectively. 

The Northeast state saw a triangular contest as Congress and CPIM, which have been arch rivals for years, stitched a pre-poll alliance to defeat the ruling BJP.