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The agenda, promises and vision of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be announced in the coming days, said the party’s national spokesperson and in-charge for Nagaland state, Nalin S Kohli, ahead of the state general election on February 27.
He said this at a press conference on Saturday at Niathu Resort in Chumoukedima, where he and State BJP President Temjen Imna Along welcomed former MLA Khekaho Assumi into the fold of the saffron party.
Kohli said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and others have been requested to campaign in the state, adding that BJP National President JP Nadda is coming next week though the details of his visit will be clear by Monday morning.
Mentioning its candidate Kazheto Kinimi being elected unopposed from 31 Akuluto AC, he said the real election process is going to start now for the BJP.
He said that the Central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi had brought in developmental projects to the state during the last five years and the coalition government in the state under the leadership of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has done good work. He added that the “double engine government” will continue to do good work if the people of Nagaland vote the alliance to power again.
When asked about the purpose of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s recent visit to Nagaland, he replied that Sarma is the convenor of NEDA who enjoys a very good working and personal relationship with so many leaders in the Northeast, including Rio.
‘Sarma came and discussed various issues related to election campaign, ideas about what they could do,’ he said, adding that it was a warm and positive meeting.
He said there is no confusion about the BJP-NDPP’s strong bond and that it is a formidable alliance to come back to power with the blessing of the people of Nagaland.
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Kohli went on to say that as a party, which has done enormous work at the ground level and given a positive mood in the state, it was natural to have many intending candidates but they finally chose 20, including 11 sitting MLAs.
On Congress’ claim that the state government had failed fulfill its promises, Imna Along said that they respect the Congress as a national party which rule the country for almost 60 years and also Nagaland for more than 20 years, but if they were to just criticize the PDA government for not delivering, it should be left to the people to decide.
He claimed that the amount of transformation that has taken in the state in terms of infrastructural development, transparency in governance, adopting of NSSB and promoting every aspect over the last few years despite meager revenue of its own, should be appreciated by all.
Along said that the Centre has interest towards the infrastructural development of the state; and that building of roads, railways, water resources, Eklavya Model Residential Schools, etc. speaks by itself.
Maintaining that the PDA government has assured political stability in Nagaland and brought infrastructure development, besides others, he expressed hope that the alliance can gain the confidence of all the people, including the Congress party.
Speaking about the Congress, Kohli said that the grand old party’s model is based on power while the BJP’s model is based on ‘serving people’.
When ask if BJP had fulfilled its 2018 manifesto, he said that the party take its election promises very seriously but ‘some of the promises is doable in a short period of time, some doable in medium period of time and some take more time’. He added that the Centre had sanctioned more than INR 7 lakh crore for infrastructural development in the Northeast since 2014.
When asked how long it might take to complete the State Stadium Dimapur, Kohli replied that he would personal take it up at an appropriate time. (Dimapur, EMN)