NDPP star campaigner and state chief minister, Neiphiu Rio, Saturday took a swipe at NPF, saying its failure to set up a candidate for the Lok Sabha elections and instead extending support to the Congress candidate was a mockery since NPF has 26 MLAs in the House while the Congress does not have a single MLA and had also lost the last three general elections in the State.
Rio said this has demoralised the NPF MLAs and party workers and severe in-fighting had cropped within their ranks.
According to NDPP media & communication committee, the chief minister said this while addressing public rallies in Noklak and Thonoknyu on Saturday.
Rio expressed confidence that the BJP-led NDA government would storm back to power under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He, therefore, called upon the people to vote consciously for PDA consensus candidate and sitting Lok Sabha MP, Tokheho Yepthomi.
The chief minister said that the elections to Lok Sabha was one of the largest electoral exercises in the world. However, he said that since Nagaland has just one seat in the Lok Sabha, the lone MP from Nagaland to the Lok Sabha represents all the people of the State. As such, he said it was the people who should decide whether they want to elect an MP who could convey the voice of the people to the Lok Sabha in line with the government’s ideologies and objectives in coordination with the state government, or whether they want an MP from the opposition who would not coordinate with the state government and instead sit in the opposition benches in Parliament. Rio was confident that the public knows better as to which choice was more pragmatic and workable for the people of the State.
In both Noklak and Thonoknyu, Rio stated that the only opposition party in the Assembly, the NPF now had no candidate to the Lok Sabha and 26 Aonglenden A/C and called upon the people to judge for themselves whether it was worth supporting such a party, which was in opposition in the State and would also be an opposition at the Centre.
The chief minister stated that he was eager to see development reach every nook and corner of Nagaland including Noklak and Thonoknyu and therefore urged upon the people to join hands and work together with the PDA government in making this dream into a reality.
The chief minister was accompanied by deputy chief minister Y Patton, sitting MP (LS) and PDA candidate Tokheho Yepthomi and Advisor Haying while Advisor L. Khumo and a large number of party leaders and workers attended the rallies.