Nagaland Chief Minister rubbishes claim of early state Assembly election, NDPP-BJP merger

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Aug. 12 (EMN): Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Friday rubbished the claims of a ploy to conduct the upcoming state assembly elections early and merge the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the polls, terming it as a “cooked up” story.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign launch event at Kisama in Kohima, the CM said the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) government is not demanding for an early election and that it prefers to conduct the polls as scheduled.

This came a day after the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) president, K Therie, claimed at a press conference that the state government is planning to conduct the state assembly election in December, about three months ahead of the normal schedule, and a possible merger of NDPP and BJP after that.

Rubbishing the claim, Rio said, ‘Some people are crazy! That is questioning the leadership. I am the leader of NDPP and no one from my party or me, or the other party had ever said anything like that.’

“That was not even a rumour, but somebody had cooked up this story, so it is their own story and not our story. If they can question their own integrity that is alright, but who are they to question my integrity?” he asked.

Maintaining that he is leader having alliance with the BJP since 2003, he said ‘the system will go on’, while rubbishing the claim of a post-poll merger.

The president of BJP Nagaland state unit and minister, Temjen Imna Along, also told Eastern Mirror on Thursday that ‘they don’t know from where the NPCC got such information (about early election).

“It is their presumption to convince the people that something is wrong with the BJP and NDPP,” he said, adding that “we will only know when the Election Commission of India announces the same (Assembly election)”.

On Naga political issue

The chief minister said that he had met the Union Home Minister Amit Shah with the parliamentary committee’s July 16 resolution, and also met the NEDA Convenor and Assam CM Himanta Biswas Sarma and GoI’s interlocutor for Naga peace talk, AK Mishra.

He said the NSCN (IM) and the interlocutor have to meet and discuss the competencies, maintaining that a resolution of the parliamentary committee had urged the Prime Minister and Union Minister to invite the NSCN (IM) for an early conclusion of the issue.

In this regard, he said that if there are any competencies they had mentioned as agreed, it is in the framework and the government doesn’t know the content which they (negotiating parties) should call and discuss to let something come out of the talk.

When asked if Mishra had invited the NSCN (IM) for talks after the July 16 parliamentary committee meeting, Rio said the parties had virtual meetings and exuded hope that they will come around. He added that the NSCM (IM) was asking for a joint statement with Mishra.

He said the interlocutor had informed him that ‘since the Framework Agreement is very much alive, there is no more statement to be given on that’; and “so the discussion is on and I hope they will understand each other”.