Naga People’s Front refutes report of reviving DAN with BJP

Dimapur, Aug. 25 (EMN): The Naga People’s Front (NPF) has refuted a report that claimed the party was willing to revive Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) with BJP to replace the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP).

NPF president Shürhozelie Liezietsu issued a rejoinder on Wednesday to clarify ‘some remarks about the party’ mentioned in a local newspaper report.

This came barely 10 days after all the members of Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) from different political parties joined hands for an opposition-less assembly under the new nomenclature Nagaland United Government (NUG).

Liezietsu stated that the matter of an opposition-less government lies with the MLAs and political parties had nothing much to do with it except to advice their legislators.

“Coming together of the MLAs does not mean coming together of the political parties,” he stated, adding that “political parties will continue to remain as it is”.

He said that NPF’s stand was clear- that its MLAs joined the “experiment” only for issue-based political reason and not to “not ask or accept anything from the government”. He added that the NUG won’t disturb the present government.

“We being the main regional political party representing the people of Nagaland, we have been trying to keep good relationship with everyone, and as such, we have no ill will against any political party,” he said, adding that NPF belongs to the people.

“But one thing I must clarify is that we have never said anything that we want to revive our alliance with BJP,” he stated. “We understand the best Naga tradition of what is considered ‘shame’ and so we have never said anything as alleged,” he added.

Liezietsu went on to say that it was the BJP that betrayed the trust of the NPF at the eleventh hour in 2018 after being together from 2003 to 2018. Maintaining that the party had no ill will against anyone, he said “there is no justification for BJP to remain hesitant to this far for fear of a political party forgetting their responsibility to support peace process”.

Reiterating that the party’s move was only for “political reason”, he said no further explanation is needed on this.