Nagaland: Nari Shakti Award winner and NDPP candidate announces 4-point agenda, four women in fray

Hekani Jakhalu, the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) candidate from Dimapur-III constituency for the February 27 Nagaland assembly polls and a social entrepreneur, is committed to providing livelihoods to unemployed youth, fighting for the rights of women, making her constituency a model constituency and accord special emphasis on the development of minority-inhabited areas of her constituency.

Jakhalu, who was awarded Nari Shakti Award in 2018, made the four-point commitment to the people of the constituency at a dedication and declaration programme of her candidature at her residential complex in Toluvi village here on Monday. She is the lone recipient of the prestigious award for women from the northeast.

Jakahlu later filed her nominations in the Dimapur deputy commissioner’s office.

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Altogether four women are contesting the 2023 assembly polls in Nagaland. The state assembly has not seen any woman representative since Nagaland got statehood in 1963.

Besides Jakhalu, the NDPP has fielded another woman candidate Salhoutuonuo Kruse from Western Angami for the ensuing polls. The Congress has put up Rosy Thomson in the Tenning constituency while Kahuli Sema is contesting the polls from the Atoizu constituency on a BJP ticket.

On her decision to contest the polls, Jakhalu, the founder of the non-governmental organisation YouthNet and a lawyer, said she has been working to provide employment opportunities to local unemployed youth through her NGO for the last 17 years. She said she has been able to help 1.2 lakh youth to get jobs by giving them skill development training in various sectors in and outside the state.

However, she felt that “unless you get into the system, you cannot do much”. Jakhalu lamented that there has been no woman representative in the highest decision-making body of the state to date.

She said it is the duty of the local MLA to provide quality education, proper health care facilities and basic amenities in his or her constituency, the NDPP nominee who graduated from Lady Sri Ram College Delhi and an LLB from Delhi University and LLM from the University of San Francisco, USA.

Asked about her plans to fight corruption, Jakhalu, if elected, assured ensure that all the government schemes and facilities reach the beneficiaries in her constituency.