Imphal, March 14: The Naga Integration issue has taken a central stage in the selection of the ruling DAN government of Nagaland's consensus choice for the lone Rajya Sabha seat of which the election for the seat will be held on March 26.Sources close to Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio told Newmai News Network in Kohima today that the Chief Minister had explained his Ministerial colleagues and the leaders of the DAN partners on the ground why he had nominated TR Zeliang who hails from Zeliangrong community as the DAN'S choice representing Nagaland in the Upper House House of the Indian Parliament.

The Chief Minister of Nagaland had told that TR Zeliang from Tening A/C bordering Manipur in the South of Nagaland would be the best bait in helping the Naga Integration cause morally and psychologically as well as in symbolic and in practical terms.

However, newspapers in Nagaland had reported that the Nagaland unit of BJP which also a coalition partner of the DAN government.

had demanded that a prominent personality from the Naga inhabited areas of Manipur Hills be nominated as the Rajya Sabha MP of Nagaland as that factor could serve as a strong helping force to the cause of the Naga Integration immensely.

The BJP unit of Nagaland also cited the example of Dr Manmohan Singh of Punjab who had represented a seat from Assam as Congress MP some years ago.

However, political observers feel that the stand of the Nagaland unit of BJP was just a diplomacy as the party was unhappy when the DAN government had nominated both for Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha seats from the Nagaland Peoples Front,NPF of which Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio belong.