NPCC says state Assembly election by December; BJP dismisses claim

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Aug. 11 (EMN): Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) President, K Therie, on Thursday claimed that the state government is on track to prepone the Assembly elections by about three months and conduct it by December 2022, along with Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.

Addressing a press conference at the Congress Bhavan in Kohima, Therie alleged that Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio had also called the head of departments and other officials to accelerate developmental work, while sharing the ‘likelihood’ of early election following the discussion with the central leadership for seat sharing.

He also maintained that the announcement of the NDPP-BJP seat-sharing alliance was “quite early and untimely”, unless it is viewed as a sign of early election.

He maintained that the parliamentary committee in its meeting on July 16, had taken a resolution endorsing that agreements to be implemented, and subsequently on July 26, the seat-sharing agreement was announced.

“So what is the hurry? Why have the core-committee members and chief minister not taken the resolution of the parliamentary committee resolution to the Prime Minister and Home Minister and how come they have agreed to the seat sharing?,” he asked.

If elections are held in December, it will be announced in October, he claimed and told the people of Nagaland that “worshiping power and money will not help the society and the future”.

Therie alleged that the “seat-negotiating leaders” have assured that ‘after election, they (NDPP) will join the BJP because before the election if they join the party, then the Christian society may not vote for them but after election they will merge with the BJP and will be one of the first Christian states where BJP government will be installed’.

‘The objective of forming a BJP government is more important than settlement or political problems in Nagaland,’ the NPCC president further alleged.

He viewed that for the BJP and the government of India, ‘ceasefire is the solution’.

“After formation of BJP government, do you think they will resign and pave the way?,” Therie asked, while also responding to the statement of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) president Chinwang Konyak to pave way after election. 

The NPCC president stated the Congress is worried about the ‘future, image, faith and identity’ of Nagaland. He asserted that for Bihar, number of MLAs is important but for Nagaland, the number is ‘valueless’.

Therie also said that forming a BJP government will let the’ Naga political issue die a natural death’.

He accused Chief Minister Niephiu Rio of ‘promoting tribalism, division, factions, religious divide’ and expressed fear that after some years, Nagaland maybe divided into ‘Frontier Nagaland state, CNTC state, Tenyimi Union or territorial autonomous council’.

He added that Congress wants to bring back ‘good culture, decency, and respect to the people’.

Mismanagement caused delay in salary

On the delay of the release in salary for government employees, he alleged that there is a lot of ‘mis-management’, stating that the ‘Central govt. does not sanction what is short of the need for the state’. He added that the Finance Commission examines what is required by the people, employees and for development.

BJP not aware of ‘presumption’

Meanwhile, speaking to Eastern Mirror, the Nagaland Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president and Minister Temjen Imna Along, said “We don’t know from where they (NPCC) got such information”.

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

Further, he clarified that the BJP party was not aware of such ‘presumptions’ and will wait for the government of India and the ECI to announce the election date.