In a significant development, the BJP in Nagaland appears to attracting recently resigned MLAs including leaders of other parties during the past fortnight.
On Saturday, Independent MLA from Ghaspani-I constituency Jacob Zhimomi resigned from the 12th Nagaland Legislative Assembly and later joined the BJP. It may be recalled the former home minister Y. Patton who resigned from the NPF party and assembly joined the BJP. Patton was elected in 2008 on BJP ticket but defected to NPF in 2009 through merger.
According to BJP sources, the party is to organise a programme on Tuesday to welcome MLAs or members of other parties who will be joining the BJP.
With the NPF in doldrums over the issue of party tickets to its sitting MLAs, there have been speculations that even chief minister T.R. Zeliang along with around 30 MLAs could choose to go their own ways in the event of most of them not getting party tickets.
CHISHI :
On Sunday, former chief minister K.L. Chishi held a press conference at his residence, where he indicated that he was going to join a national party. Though not saying it yet, Chishi did not deny it could be the BJP.
Veteran politician and chief minister for a brief one-month period during 1990, K.L Chishi, who resigned from Congress Saturday, said he would join another national party and contest the assembly elections 2018 from his former 32 A/C Atoizu assembly constituency. Chishi had won the 2008 assembly election from Dimapur-I with Congress ticket.
Though Chishi kept it confidential perhaps till he formally joined it, he did not deny when asked if it was the BJP.
Chishi said he would join a national party as only a national party could bring a solution to the protracted Naga political issue.
“National party with a daring determination can bring about final solution, that is honourable and acceptable to all the Nagas”, Chishi said.
According to Chishi, only national parties like Indian National Congress (INC) and BJP, could bring a solution to the Naga political issue. However, he said INC had no determination to solve the “Naga political issue between the Nagas and Indians”.
“But the BJP has the guts to initiate and finalize the solution between the Government of India and the people of Nagaland”, he added. Therefore, Chishi was of the view that there was no point in running with Congress whose dream cannot be “relinquished” and that Nagas would be sailing only in dreams.
On the other hand, Chishi also said that a regional party cannot bring the solution either as the ruling regional party NPF in the state was only interested in fooling the people by making false promises during electioneering.
He recalled how the NPF party had fooled the people in 2008 by making false promises in the assembly that it would bring a solution within six months. When the question was raised in 2012 again, he said NPF claimed that the solution to the Naga political issue was going in the “right direction”.
In this regard, the former Congress leader wondered whether there was an end to the “right direction.” He also claimed that the ruling NPF party at the state has been mired in all kinds of corruption that were beyond human imagination.
He said that the last five years of the current tenure of the NPF led government has brought the state into turmoil, where the state exchequer had been emptied with no sign of development, students with unpaid scholarships, teachers/government servants not paid their due salaries and the authorities at the helm of affairs robbing the funds meant for the people and development. He claimed that all this money has been amassed and spent at Kaziranga by those in power for their selfish ends to topple “this or that government”.
At the moment, Chishi said, Congress due to poor leadership in the organization and also infighting among themselves over the leadership failed to take advantage of the situation when there was infighting within the ruling parties.
Chishi also revealed that for a State like Nagaland, which depended only on the centre for financial assistance, a national party would be the better choice as the state requires huge amounts of money for development, human resources and to uplift the youth. His view was that, a resourceless regional party cannot promote the egos and ethos of the people.
Also, when asked whether he wishes to become the chief minister in the event of his party and him winning the elections, Chishi replied “ambitions never die”.
Chishi also termed his resignation from Congress as an “extreme and painful step” but he had taken the step as he was left with no other options.
“Till Saturday evening, I was a ‘die and live with the Congress party’ politician”, but certain dissatisfactions had compelled him to quit, Chishi added.
RELATED POSTS
View all
