Mokokchung, August 13 (MTNews): Responding to chief minister Neiphiu Rio’s statement that his party, the NDPP, will not merge with its ally, the BJP, after the next election, the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) chief, K Therie acknowledged the Chief Minister’s announcement but stated that it was difficult to trust him for a variety of reasons.
“Rubbing off the truth is a very difficult job,” he said, adding that the assurance to merge with the BJP after the election is widely discussed and that it is for this reason that seat sharing has been agreed upon, “although some BJP ground workers in the state are claiming to contest all 60 seats.”
“It was a much easier proposal to form a BJP government in a Christian state, so the BJP agreed quickly,” he said.
He went on to say that it was “unusual” to have a seat sharing deal signed by General Secretary, NDPP, and Nalin Kohli, National Spokesperson BJP & I/C Nagaland while ignoring the President NDPP, State BJP President, and Leader of BJP in the State Assembly – that too, 7 months before the election.
“Seat sharing, if any, is usually done after the announcement of an election. Nagaland BJP Unit President welcomed seat sharing. After a few days President NDPP called it historic, maybe because he was not consulted. Leader of BJP in the Assembly, Dy. Chief Minister expressed he was not consulted. However, next day he welcomed the deal,” Therie reminded.
He also said that the seat sharing deal cannot be attributed to the implementation of a political solution. “Seat sharing has killed the aspirations of the people for settlement,” he continued.
Therie then pointed out that AK Mishra, GoI’s representative himself has said that he cannot change the concluded talks.
“We also understand the compulsions of the NSCN (IM),” Therie said, adding that if there was any sincerity and commitment, the Parliamentary Committee and the entire 60 MLA strong delegation should present the Resolution of the 16th July 2022 Parliamentary Committee meeting to the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister and express the people’s aspirations.
Therie suggested that the Chief Ministers of Manipur and Arunachal be invited to a settlement meeting, if necessary.
“The Chief Minister explains he met the Union Home Minister with the Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, on the issue. If there was any seriousness, the UHM should not have announced that all the political problems of NE will be resolved after 2024. However, the only outcome of the meeting with UHM is seat sharing. Neither development activities nor political solution were mentioned,” Therie claimed.
Therie also asked the Chief Minister not to beat around the bush anymore. “It is time for our age to be honest to the people,” he remarked.
It may be mentioned that K Therie had earlier claimed that the NDPP would be merging with the BJP after the 2023 elections to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly, which Rio said he has no idea about. Replying to media persons on the sidelines of an official program in Kisama on Friday, Rio said that the NDPP’s alliance with the BJP would go on. “The pre-poll partnership will continue, but I don’t know anything about the post-poll merger,” said Rio.