DIMAPUR, OCTOBER 28 : For reasons that remain unexplained yet (officially), the BJP legislator from oil-rich Bhandari constituency in Wokha district, Mmhonlumo Kikon was on Friday stripped off of his portfolio as the parliamentary secretary of Labour Employment, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and Border Affairs by the TR Zeliang-led state government.
Announcing the decision through a curt 30-worded order, the cabinet secretary, RB Thong informed that the chief minister of Nagaland was “pleased” to order the removal of the parliamentary secretary concerned from his position “with immediate effect”. No further explanation/information was provided.
Eastern Mirror contacted Mmhonlumo Kikon for confirmation and information. “I am not aware of it! I just saw it in social media! It’s alright! I serve at the pleasure of the CM! So he may drop me as he pleases,” Kikon replied.
The chief minister’s office also declined to comment on the latest political development, while the phone number of the president of Democratic Alliance of Nagaland, Dr Shurhozelie was switched off as of Friday night.
However, highly reliable sources have suggested that Kikon has been dropped because of his alleged indulgence in anti-DAN activities ever since induction into the Ministry. The sources have also said that Kikon’s loyalty to the DAN as well as to the BJP party was questionable. It was claimed that the decision to remove Kikon was taken after consultation with the Nagaland BJP leadership and its legislators.
This however was contradicted by the president of BJP Nagaland unit, Visasolie Lhoungu. According to him, the Nagaland BJP leadership did meet chief minister TR Zeliang recently. “But we discussed only about the oil issue in Wokha and we were told (by the chief minister) that Mmhonlumo’s actions on this issue were against the government.
“But there was no proposal to remove him from the position of parliamentary secretary. We did not discuss about it. So as of now, we are not aware of the reason (behind his removal)”, he said. When asked if his party had tried to discuss the alleged anti-government activities of Kikon with him, Lhoungu said that it was not possible since Kikon did not attend the party meetings.
It was also learnt that earlier this month, the NPF Youth Wing had submitted a memorandum to chief minister demanding the removal of Kikon from the Ministry. However, till the filing of this report, the information could not be confirmed from the NPF Youth Wing.
