E.T. Ezung

E.T. Ezung died in Dimapur on 1 October 2026 after a brief illness. Nagaland Post and Eastern Mirror reported that he was 76; PTI and India Today North East, citing family sources, said he was 75. The Chief Minister addressed a condolence message to Mrs Abeny Ezung. Speaker Longkumer, Deputy Chief Minister Yanthungo Patton, NPCC president and Lok Sabha MP S. Supongmeren Jamir, the NPCC, Wokha District Congress Committee, Lotha Lower Range Public Organisation, North East Congress Coordination Committee and other groups issued tributes. No further medical details or formal funeral timetable were set out in the early reports cited here.

E. Thungchamo Ezung, known in public life as E.T. Ezung, was a Lotha Naga from Yonchucho village in the 40-Bhandari area of Wokha district, Nagaland. Community tributes identified him as the son of P.E. Ezung, described locally as a prominent figure in Naga history and a contemporary of A.Z. Phizo. He graduated from St Edmund's College, Shillong, in 1974. Before and alongside his legislative career he was associated with student and youth organisations, community institutions and other public forums in Wokha and the Lotha areas.

Ezung entered the Nagaland Legislative Assembly from the 40-Bhandari constituency as a Congress candidate in the early 1980s. Speaker Sharingain Longkumer stated that he was a three-time member in the sense of service in the 5th, 7th and 10th Assemblies; Wokha District Congress Committee accounts list wins in 1982 and 1989 for Congress, a 2003 win for the NDM, and later Congress victories in 2008, 2013 and 2018. He served as deputy Speaker and as Speaker of the Assembly from 1985 to 1986. As a cabinet minister he held portfolios including Power, Housing and Home Guards. In the Congress organisation he served as NPCC working president in the late 2010s and remained a Core Committee and PAC member at his death. Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio highlighted his work in the Joint Legislators' Forum on the Naga political issue.

Ezung made his home in the public and community life of Wokha district and Dimapur. He was married to Abeny Ezung. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and a granddaughter. Party colleagues often described him as a gentleman in politics, accessible and steady through both difficult and favourable times for the Nagaland Pradesh Congress.

Ezung is remembered as one of the early Lotha leaders to hold the Speakership and senior ministerial office in Nagaland, and as a long-serving representative of Bhandari. Leaders across parties framed his death as a loss to the Lotha community and to Naga public life. His decades in the Assembly, his Speakership in the mid-1980s, his ministerial work, and his later NPCC leadership form the main lines of a career tied to parliamentary institutions and community welfare in Wokha and Dimapur.