Toyang wins 53 Tuensang Sadar-1

Toyang Changkong Chang

In his maiden electoral fray 33-year old Toyang Changkong Chang, who contested as an Independent candidate, won the 53 Tuensang Sadar-I assembly seat defeating NPF candidate L.Elam Chang by a margin of 2,272 votes in a straight fight. Counting of votes began at 8 a.m.

Tuesday for polling held on March 23. Toyang polled 9,534 votes while his NPF opponent L. Elam Chang polled 7,262 votes.

Counting was held amid promulgation of section 144 CrPC by the district authorities and beefed up security to prevent any untoward incidents.


It may be mentioned that 53 Tuensang Sadar-I has a total electorate of 22,049 of which 11,579 are males and 10,470 are females. In the March 23 election, 16,040 out of 22,049 exercised their franchise recording a voter turn out of 72.75 %.

Polling on March 23 was by and large peaceful and incident-free barring seizure of a total of 145 voter slips from unauthorized voters.

There were 30 polling stations under the constituency and all of which were declared hyper-sensitive by the authorities. A total of 56 persons were taken into custody for poll malpractices.

The election to the constituency was adjourned from the scheduled date of February 23 to March 23, following the demise of the sitting Congress candidate and former minister P. Chuba Chang on February 22 in Naga Hospital Kohima.

It may be mentioned that 33-year old Toyang Chang, has emulated his late father and former Congress minister Changkong Chang, in winning an election in the first attempt.

Late Changkong Chang won the seat in 1987 as Congress candidate and retained it in 1989 and 1993. For Elam Chang, it is his second consecutive loss as NPF candidate-in 2008 and 2013.

Toyang Chang’s victory takes the total number of independent members to an all-time high of eight (8). After the result of the election to 53 Tuensang Sadar-I was declared, the 12th Nagaland Legislative Assembly now has a full complement of 60 members.

The strength of the ruling DAN coalition has also gone up to 52 after Toyang Chang pledges support to it. The opposition Congress has 8 members.

Meanwhile, speaking to Nagaland Post Tuesday, Toyang Chang thanked the voters for his maiden electoral victory.