First woman from Nagaland to enter Rajya Sabha is going to be S Phangnon Konyak, so who is the candidate for the Bharatiya Janata Party? She is the second woman to be part of parliament from the state and the first one to be part of RS from the state. The nomination filing for the candidacy ended yesterday and no other person has filed to contest against her.
S Phangnon Konyak's selection for RS will make her the second woman to be part of the parliament from the state of Nagaland in 45 years. Before her Rano M Shaiza was the first Naga woman to be elected as a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha elections of 1977.
Even after 58 years of getting the statehood, Nagaland is yet to elect a woman as the Member of the Legislative Assembly. It is a state in the northeast of India and shares domestic borders with Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and an international border with Myanmar.
Suggested Reading: The Way Forward For Indian Women In Politics Is Every Man’s Job
S Phangnon Konyak: First Woman From Nagaland To Enter Rajya Sabha
Konyak joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2017. She holds a master's degree in English Literature from Delhi University. She was the batch of 2002.
In there also, she was deeply involved in student activism and other social organisations. Currently, she is the BJP Mahila Morcha Nagaland's President. The declaration of Konyak being the candidate for the party was made on March 18 while NPF had decided on nominating one of their vice presidents Thenucho Tunyi against her on March 19.
Konyak filed her nomination papers in the presence of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton, BJP President and minister Imna Along and other leaders.
When selected, she will be replacing the Rajya Sabha member from the state and political party Naga People's Front (NPF) KG Kenye, whose tenure ends on April 2. NPF constitutes the major part of the ruling political coalition United Democratic Alliance, which was going to nominate their own candidate but could not bring in the support of ten MLAs to nominate the candidate. The party has a total of 25 MLAs.
(Feature Image Credit: The Hindustan Times)