Witoubou Newmai The effects of the ensuing assembly election in the State of Nagaland are likely to reverberate in the State of Manipur, immediately after the election results are declared early next month. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was able to form the Government in Manipur with the help of Naga People’s Front (NPF), National People’s Party (NPP) and Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) early last year. The two archrivals—the BJP and the Indian National Congress—were the two main political parties which vied for the ‘kursi’ of the Manipur politics in the last assembly election held in early 2017. The saffron party managed to put 21 seats into its kitty while its rival party won in 28 assembly constituencies, in the 60-member legislative assembly. Since the honeymoon between the Lotus and the Cock is over, at least for now, in the State of Nagaland, and both the parties are going at the other with hammer and tongs during their poll campaigns, the four NPF legislators supporting the BJP led Government in Manipur must be going through an uncomfortable posture every day. The NPF Central office is yet to announce the party’s position in Manipur because it seems that the placing of things in suspense sometimes holds well in politics. In politics, if there can be a thing called pre-poll alliance, there can also be another thing called post-poll alliance to complete the saying, ‘Anything can happen in politics’ or ‘Anything is possible in politics’. So, the move of the NPF Central office with regards to the nature of its directives to the Manipur State unit of the party will depend on the results of the ensuing assembly election to the State of Nagaland. To elucidate this argument, though the NPF Central office is fervently campaigning against the BJP and vice versa, if each of the two parties needs the support of the other in the post poll political scenario, then, both the parties are likely to cover their ongoing tracks of salvo with the “there is no permanent foes or permanent friends in politics”. Again, since the BJP needs the support of the NPF in Manipur, the Central office of the Cock party is also likely to use its four legislators as bargaining baits with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government at the Centre for political gains in the State of Nagaland, depending on the political configuration after the results of the ensuing assembly election to the State. Therefore, the four NPF legislators in the State of Manipur are most likely to become crucial catalysts for the Lotus and the Cock after the Nagaland State assembly election.