NPP rejects five MLAs’ move to NPF as poaching, arguing their 2023 electoral mandate cannot move with them
DIMAPUR — The National People’s Party (NPP) has rejected the merger of its five Nagaland MLAs with the Naga People’s Front (NPF), calling the move “poaching” and arguing that a legislator’s decision to switch parties cannot transfer the electoral mandate on which he was elected.
NPP national vice president Vevoyi D Vadeo, in a statement on Friday, disputed the description of the move as a merger, maintaining that a merger was a decision between two political parties.
“What happened today is the taking of five men who won on the NPP ticket, with NPP workers, on an NPP vote,” the statement read.
The five NPP legislators joined the NPF earlier on Thursday in the presence of Chief Minister and NPF president Neiphiu Rio and other senior party leaders.
Vadeo contended that the five constituencies had voted for NPP in the 2023 Assembly election and not the NPF.
“The mandate stays where the voter put it. It does not move because the member has moved,” he said.
He questioned the NPF’s decision to induct the five MLAs when the party already commands a majority in the 60-member Assembly.
“There is no opposition in this Assembly. Every party is already with the government. Five more members change nothing about power. They change only the size of the NPF bench,” Vadeo said, maintaining that the NPP would continue to describe the move as “poaching”.
He also accused the NPF of using the opposition-less Assembly, which had been justified as a platform for presenting a united political voice on the Naga political issue, for partisan expansion.
“The opposition-less House has been turned into the instrument. It was accepted for the Naga political question, so the Assembly could speak as one on a matter that belongs to the people. The NPF has used it to hunt,” he alleged.
Vadeo further questioned the implications of the move for other parties in the ruling arrangement, pointing to the BJP, LJP (Ram Vilas), JD
Even as the BJP and NPF maintain that their alliance remains intact, he said that the NPP did not find such assurances convincing.
“The NPF took the NDPP. It has now taken the NPP’s five. It will come for the rest if nothing stops it,” he alleged.
The NPP leader also cited an Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report on party-switching by sitting legislators, claiming that Nagaland had recorded the highest number of such switches among the states covered by the study and that the NPF was the biggest beneficiary nationally.
Vadeo said that the earlier NDPP-NPF merger should not be viewed as justification for the latest development.
“That is not an alibi. That is the first sweep. Today is the second,” he said, alleging that the NPF was expanding its strength by drawing legislators elected on other parties’ mandates.
He argued that a larger numerical strength in the Assembly did not address questions of governance or the Naga political issue.
“A bigger NPF number answers nothing about criticism of governance. It does not answer the Naga political issue. It does not answer the record of this government. Headcount is not performance,” Vadeo said.
He maintained that the five legislators would have to answer to the voters who elected them on NPP tickets.
“The seat is not theirs to gift, and it is not the NPF’s to seize,” he said.
The NPP, he added, was examining the notification concerning the merger and would pursue remedies available under the Constitution, the Tenth Schedule and other applicable laws.
“A poaching does not turn clean because a paper has been issued,” Vadeo said.
Also read: Nagaland: Five NPP MLAs merge with NPF