We have no dearth of political dramas and the latest NDPP-BJP seat sharing pact signed on July 26, 2022 is keeping everyone on tenterhooks. The grand finale before 2023 election is going to be even more interesting!
For the moment political shoulder-firing is taking center stage, particular the pair of CM Rio and the state BJP President Imna Along who both have taken great pains to shield the fact that they are both firing from each other’s shoulders!
With their constant barrage and with cunning accuracy both have managed to kill many birds, at least for now.
Firstly, Mr. Rio dashed the hopes of all his detractors to unseat him in the next elections. With this pact signed and sealed, Rio is the unchallenged CM well into his 5th Term, hopefully becoming India’s longest CM by the end of the next term.
Secondly, he deftly exploited the divided house called Nagaland BJP so much so that the Dy. CM Patton and the other 10 legislators and party workers except for the state president who was faking sleep were caught napping as Mr. Patton admitted to Hornbill TV on 27th July. So it seems while the Dy.CM was busy attending the oathtaking ceremony of India’s new President, Kholi and Rio were busy maneuvering in Nagaland House!
Around the same time BJP President Temjen Imna Along tweeted, rather cutely and innocently, that he “Wholeheartedly support the decision of the CENTRAL LEADERS” on the issue, not addressing the growing speculation as to why he himself did not sign the pact!
Obviously there’s a healthy relationship between NDPP and one section of BJP, too healthy the BJP grassroots would say who are deadly against the alliance and instead want the BJP to go all alone into the 2023 polls.
The other bird which Mr. Rio may have killed off is the political ambition of a young BJP leader from Ghaspani-1 constituency who has made no secret of his ambition to become the next CM. This young man is a serious threat to both the incumbent CM and the BJP President. In a classic case of double maneuvering, the wily Imna Along helped himself and Mr. Rio by cutting to size the Dy. CM and the young legislator! Politics indeed makes strange bedfellows!
It goes without saying that Mr. Rio threw a spanner in the CNTC greater scheme of things. A shrewd Rio was obviously alarmed when the CNTC Legislators’ Forum was launched in the beginning of this year. However, for the wily fox Imna Along the overtly simple formula of replacing Mr. Rio with a CNTC man is pedestrian at best! Better for BJP to play second fiddle to NDPP with him at helm than allow his rivals to head the next BJP government! With the signing of the pact CNTC will have to go to the drawing board, again!
There’re many lessons we have learnt from this episode. For one, the straight talking Dy. CM is no match for the shoulder-firing, whispering BJP President, and the state BJP as a whole is no match for the master key-holder Rio! Given these talents it’s still unclear as to how the ‘Opposition-less’ government cannot outwit the RSS in their bid for Naga solution!
Secondly, for every Indian emissary sent from Delhi the prospect of meeting Gandhi (the note) in Kohima is immeasurably exciting.
Lastly, given the machinations inside CNTC, it’s highly probable that the CNTC will end up propping Mr. Rio into his 5th innings!
POTSO ANGAMI
7th Mile, Chumoukedima
