New Nagaland Chief Minister takes oath

Guwahati: Nagaland People’s Front (NPF) president Shurhozelie Liezietsu was sworn in as the new Nagaland chief minister by Governor P.B. Acharya at the Raj Bhavan in Kohima on Wednesday.

The 81-year-old Liezietsu is at present not the member of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly. He will have to get elected within six months from taking office. The 11 ministers, including one from BJP, also took the oath with the chief minister.

Mr Liezietsu became the consensus candidate for the chief minister’s post on Monday after the ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland unanimously elected him as leader of its legislature party at the meeting attended by 59 MLAs. Nagaland has a 60-member assembly.

Mr Liezietsu, who is the Naga People’s Front president, succeeds Mr T.R. Zeliang who stepped down on Sunday amidst protests by various tribal organisations opposed to the state government’s decision to reserve 33 per cent seats for women in urban local body elections.

Mr Liezietsu had been a member of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly for eight terms but did not contest the 2013 assembly elections. The ministers who were inducted on Wednesday included Kiyanilie Peseyie, Yanthungo Patton, P. Longon, C. Kipili Sangtam among others.

Mr Liezietsu has held the office of the education minister in state government and has also been associated with policy making and is credited with introducing the Compact Area Development Scheme, later named Local Area Development Fund, in Nagaland.

Mr Liezietsu has also authored four novels and several collections of poetry, he has also written dictionaries and books related to Tenyidie language and biographies and essays. He is also the first to have been conferred a DLit (honorary) by the Nagaland University in 2003.