Rising People’s Party (RPP) on Monday said that the wave in support of Congress Lok Sabha candidate S. Supongmeren Jamir was unprecedented, despite being positioned against the 60 legislators.
In what should have been a walk-over election for the PDA given that it secured more than 95% of the votes cast in 2023 general election, RPP in a statement said that the Congress had the momentum now. According to RPP, if the state elections were held along presidential lines– American style – today for the post of chief minister, Neiphiu Rio would be swept away in a landslide, adding that such was the desperation of the people for change.
The party said the nervousness in the PDA camp was palpable, accusing it of first back-stabbing the ENPO demand for Frontier Nagaland Territory (FNT).
“After this double-cross, the PDA manoeuvred ENLU and ENGOA to convince ENPO to participate in the election which but backfired miserably. To top the humiliation, Chingwang Konyak, the president of NDPP was summoned to appear before the Konyak Union within 48 hours. It seems the PDA government has been trapped in its own cleverness,” the statement added.
Since the PDA exhausted all its options in securing victory, RPP said perhaps resorting to cash-for-votes was the only option left for the PDA inorder to win this election.
Unsurprisingly, because of their do-or-die situation, the party claimed that reports were now pouring in that massive amounts of money were being handed over to all their 40 MLAs to buy votes at any cost.
Giving credence to such speculations, the RPP pointed out that there was hardly any checking of vehicles/choppers by Election Commission of India (ECI) officials and the fact that the Congress’ accounts had been frozen, the absence of checking meant that any amount of cash could be easily transferred. RPP demanded that the ECI explain its failure to uphold its constitutional obligation.