NPF mulls fielding Thenucho for RS seat
Correspondent/Staff Reporter
Though earlier speculated, yet when the NPF eventually initiated the process for filing of nomination of the party candidate for the lone Rajya Sabha seat, it literally caused a political upheaval.
Letters, dated March 19, written by NPF president Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu, to Returning Officer of NLA and another to NPF legislature party leader T.R. Zeliang confirmed that the NPF was ready to set up a candidate– veteran Naga politician Thenucho Tunyi for the Rajya Sabha and ensure that there will be a contest on March 31 with BJP nominee S. Phangnon Konyak.
The development comes just a day after the Central BJP had officially declared State BJP Mahila Morcha president, S. Phangnon Konyak as the party’s official candidate for the lone Rajya Sabha seat.
It may be mentioned that chief minister Neiphiu Rio’s tweet on Friday indicated that his party had endorsed the decision of the Central BJP to nominate Phangnon. Rio had congratulated Phangnon “on being selected as the candidate for the biennial elections to the Council of States @RajyaSabha, from Nagaland…”
Dr. Shürhozelie in his letter to NPF legislature party leader TR Zeliang, who is also the UDA chairman, which went viral on social media, expressed his party’s happiness to inform that Thenucho had come forward to stand as NPF candidate for the RS election “if no candidate comes forward from our legislature group.”
A nominee for RS has to be recommended by not less than 10 legislators as per norms, Dr. Shürhozelie has requested T.R. Zeliang to take up the matter and entrust the required number of MLAs to sign the nomination paper on Monday, the last date of filing of the papers.
In another letter, Dr. Shürhozelie authorized NPF legal cell co-convenor Vimeno Kuotsu to liaison with the returning officer for the biennial polls and to collect and file the nomination paper on behalf of the party’s official candidate. However, when contacted a senior NPF legislator informed Nagaland Post that there was a “communication gap” between the NPF legislators and the party leaders.
Without explaining much about the miscommunication, he said now that the party (NPF legislature) was under the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) with one NPF MLA in the cabinet. He said, therefore the NPF elected members were likely to go along with the UDA consensus nominee.
On the other hand, State BJP chief spokesperson, Atopu Shohe said the BJP was confident that the NPF legislators, being part of the UDA, would respect and stand by the decision of the alliance to field Phangnon Konyak. As reported, he also said it was a pre-poll commitment of the NDPP to support a BJP Rajya Sabha candidate in return for support extended to the NDPP candidate in the Lok Sabha elections.
The development has further given grist to rumour mills about certain sections of the society raising heckles against allowing a BJP member to represent Nagaland in the Rajya Sabha.
Cross-voting likely
If all does not go well within the UDA alliance, the Rajya Sabha elections is likely to witness cross-voting among the legislators.
This is so since political parties do not issue whip for the Rajya Sabha elections.
According to a report in The Hindu— in the matter with regard to Tamil Nadu Rajya Sabha elections in 2013, a senior Election Commission official had said that even if the legislators cross vote, it would not attract disqualification under the 10 Schedule of the Constitution of India (Article 102 (2) and 191 (2).
“As such, political parties cannot issue any whip, like they do in the Legislative Assembly, asking their MLAs to vote for a particular candidate. They can issue instructions but it is left to political organisations to take action as they deem fit if an MLA defies the party’s order,” the official said.
The official also made it clear that irrespective of whether the MLAs give second preference or other preferences of votes while exercising their franchise in the election, if they failed to mark their first preference then their vote would get rejected. Likewise, candidates who get the lowest number of votes while counting the first preference votes would be eliminated before taking up counting of votes of second preferences and so on.
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