TR Zeliang breaks silence, says ‘merger’ with NDPP legit

Our Reporter
Dimapur, May 6 (EMN): Breaking his silence after joining the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) along with more than a dozen Naga People’s Front (NPF) legislators, United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Chairman TR Zeliang on Friday said that the move was “legally correct”.

He said the ‘merger’ of 21 NPF MLAs with the NDPP ‘should be treated as such (legit), not otherwise, as some leaders had suggested, because this development did not happen overnight, but was the result of extensive deliberation between the two parties, namely the NDPP and the NPF, since 2021’.

Zeliang was addressing a press conference at Sky Garden, 7th Mile in Chümoukedima, to clear the confusion arising out of the recent political development.

A total of 21 NPF MLAs led by Zeliang joined the NDPP on April 30, taking the cock party and public unawares. It came months ahead of the state assembly election which is due in the first half of next year.

Speaking about the political development, the former chief minister of Nagaland said that the decision of 21 MLAs was made consciously in accordance with the law of the land; citing the amendment of Clause 4(1) of the 10th Schedule of the Indian Constitution in 2003, which says two-thirds of elected Members of a Political Party can join another political party with or without the involvement of party functionaries.

According to Clause 4(2), whether party comes along with MLAs or not, the word “deemed to have taken place” implies that if two-thirds of members of a legislature party agree to merge with another political party, then it should be taken that there was a merger for the purpose of Clause 4 of the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, he stated.

In their case, he said, since 21 NPF MLAs, comprised of more than two-thirds of the NPF party’s legislative members, have agreed to merge with the NDPP, the merger is constitutionally valid according to paragraph 4(2) of the Tenth Amendment.

‘Nowhere in the country has a merger occurred with two-thirds of the MLAs disqualified as such,’ he said, adding that party leaders or MLAs should update themselves on the law of the land before expressing their views out of ignorance of the law.

Zeliang also said that ‘since the day the NPF walked out of the Joint Legislature Forum (ULF) on the Naga political issue and formed the Political Affairs Mission (PAM) in 2019, collective efforts had been made to facilitate the settlement of the Naga political issue as the demand for unity amongst the elected members, especially the two regional parties in the State — NPF and NDPP — echoed louder due to the stalemate in the political dialogue between the Government of India and Naga negotiating groups’.

Despite their best efforts, he said ‘they were unable to move forward due to misunderstandings between the two regional political groups’.

However, in 2021, the necessity to form an all-party government was felt in order to have better co-ordination in the working system, particularly in facilitating the Naga political issue and extensive discussion was held with the highest decision making body of the NPF in the Central Office, Kohima, in the presence of the NPF President, he added.

‘NPF President aware of merger’

He also said that the decision to be a part of the all-party government was taken after thorough deliberation, so, the question of not consulting each other before the Legislature Party took the decision on August 16, 2021, does not arise.

‘Due to the ongoing political dynamics, the idea of having one strong regional party in the State cropped up again, and as such, talks were held discreetly at the highest level to work out an acceptable formula to amalgamate the two regional parties, namely NDPP and NPF,’ he continued.

Zeliang revealed that the first option was for the NDPP to join the NPF and they were openly welcomed to the party but some conditions could not be met while finalising the matter. He claimed that it couldn’t be materialised as some NDPP MLAs were not willing to come back to NPF unless the NPF president paved the way but the party chief’s tenure was supposed end only in November 2024.

The second option, he said, was for the NPF MLAs to join the NDPP to strengthen the hands of the chief minister and bring stability to the government. Citing this, he said the recent ‘merger’ was a consensus decision to form one strong regional party and not a ‘sudden step’.

The NPF President was also well aware of the developments and he had even mentioned in his recent press interview that it (the move) did not come as a surprise to him, he said.

Zeliang also clarified that the appointment of legislator YM Yollow Konyak to the cabinet was not the decision of the NPF but that of the chief minister to include one NPF MLA, while the UDA Chairman was not appointed but elected by the three collision partners including two Independent MLAs.

He went on to say that the question of ‘hijacking any of the MLAs during the merger with the NDPP party does not arise, as the party legislature party functioning system is quite different from the party functioning system and whenever important political decision is taken, as leader of the legislature party, they take the opinion of each MLA before taking a final decision’.

He said that if the remaining NPF party (legislators) also wants to go along with the UDA government, they are most welcome.

Maintaining that when two strong regional parties are there, a third party could take advantage as in the past, he said they should not give room for undue advantage to be taken by the third party, which can be any political party. He added that if two strong regional parties come together, it protects everyone of them.

On seat sharing and Naga issue

Regarding NDPP’s possible seat-sharing (read as with the BJP) deal in the upcoming state assembly election, he said the 42 MLAs will take the decision. However, he said ‘nothing has been decided so far across the table by the three political parties’.

When asked about the progress of the Naga peace talks, Zeliang said they were yet to contact Centre’s interlocutor AK Mishra since he left Nagaland for New Delhi after a week-long hectic parleys with Naga political groups and leaders of civil society organisations.

Meanwhile, Zeliang said that Mishra might call the NSCM (IM) again to Delhi or he would come back to Nagaland to give a final touch. He expressed hope that an amicable settlement could come with a compromise formula and that they had clearly told the Centre that a compromise formula should come from Delhi and not from Nagaland.