Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Jan. 25 (EMN): In the matter of three days – since he was last ‘welcomed’ as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member at a ‘felicitation programme’ on Jan. 22 – the BJP hopeful, and one-time president of Dimapur Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Z Kasheto Yeptho has announced his dissociation from the saffron party.
Yeptho was expected to contest the forthcoming Nagaland assembly elections on BJP ticket from Ghaspani-I assembly constituency. Until recently, Independent legislator Jacob Zhimomi was the sitting representative from said constituency – but he retired from the assembly to join the BJP. Both Yeptho and Zhimomi were ‘welcomed’ at the same ‘felicitation’ event conducted on Jan. 22 at Hotel Saramati.
“During the Jan. 22 felicitation programme and meeting held for candidates who joined BJP, the party national general secretary and in-charge of the Northeastern states Ram Madhav, during the course of the meeting did not emphasise on corruption which is the core concern of the state and I observed that BJP was not secular enough. It was also the request of my supporters not to contest from BJP,” Yeptho claimed at the press conference on Thu.
Though having left the BJP – after arriving at the conclusion that the party, in his own words, “was not secular enough” inside the past three days – Yeptho was confident of winning the Ghaspani-I seat. He hinted at contesting on Naga People’s Front ticket.
Yeptho also claimed that he was committed to the clean election call led by the Nagaland Baptist Church Council, and maintained that everyone should support the campaign.
