In what could be considered a slip of the tongue or just one of those honest moments for the Naga People’s Front leader, Azo Nienu, on January 26, mentioned that the Naga People’s Front is struggling to field candidates and has decided to contest only 30 seats rather than the usual 60. He said this during one of his live interviews in a TV show with Wasbir Hussain.
However, he swiftly corrected himself by stating that the NPF party will only field “winnable” candidates.
According to him, the NPF party joining the NDPP-BJP led government last year does not give their party any disadvantage during campaigning. In fact, while speaking on the campaigning approach they had set for the election campaign, he remarked, “We will tell the truth and expose the truth when the time comes. We are opposition-less but not an alliance.”
Meanwhile, K. Therie, President of the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee, remarked that the NPF had lost its identity. He said that the NPF had lost relevance because its members couldn’t determine whether to support the communal party or the secular force.
“NPF was respected because of their ideology of regional identity, for upholding their culture and faith but today, they compromised with communal BJP,” Therie argued.
Azo said that they did not join the NDPP-BJP voluntarily, but were forced to do so in the public interest and to facilitate the Naga solution.
Azo further stated that the most significant issue is the Naga political crisis, and that excessive extortion and taxation is something that people have really grown tired of.