Guwahati: With Nagaland moving towards an opposition-less assembly after NCP and JD(U) MLAs extended their support to the N Rio government, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said all parties in the Northeast must understand that they would have to eventually support the BJP.

This is the second straight time when the state will have an opposition-less house, with other political parties and independents that won the elections also supporting the NDPP-BJP government. The JD(U), meanwhile, has dissolved its Nagaland unit and stated that its lone MLA had supported the government without the knowledge of party leadership.

Sarma said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the “tallest leader” of the country, and everyone favours him in the region. The Assam CM, BJP’s face in the Northeast, was responding to questions from reporters in Guwahati about the NCP and JD(U) supporting the Rio government.

When asked if the JD(U) Bihar CM Nitish Kumar would return to BJP-led NDA, Sarma said: “I have not researched much on him. But with Nitish Kumar, you can’t guarantee anything.”

In the 60-member Nagaland assembly, the BJP has won 12 seats, while its ally NDPP (Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party) got 25 and independents four.

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

Sarma said that this is the first time a PM has visited the swearing-in ceremony in Nagaland and Meghalaya. The PM is interested in the development of the Northeast, not in the 2024 elections, he said.