• Neiphiu Rio may replace TR as CM
• Dr Shurhozelie beleaguered, 49 legislators supporting Rio camped in Kaziranga
• TR Zeliang to arrive Sunday to tender resignation
Morung Express News
Dimapur | February 18
The “peoples’ movement” spearheaded by the Joint Action Committee (JCC) and the Nagaland Tribe Action Committee (NTAC) demanding the resignation of Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang on “moral grounds” has turned into a political game play to reclaim the spoils - the seat of the Chief Minister.
It has now emerged that Lok Sabha MP Neiphiu Rio, and not Naga People’s Front (NPF) president Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu, may replace TR Zeliang as the Chief Minister.
This transpired after 49 legislators from the NPF and Independent supporting the return of Rio sneaked out of Nagaland capital Kohima late Friday night and early Saturday morning and lodged in a resort at Kaziranga in Assam.
The sudden dramatic turn of events occurred right on the eve of Dr Shurhozelie preparing to stake claim to replace Zeliang after 42 MLAs – 33 of them from the NPF – had thrown their weight behind Dr Shurhozelie, as mounting pressure from JCC and NTAC grew for Zeliang to resign.
Sources in the NPF camp said TR Zeliang met the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday night. He also met Neiphiu Rio and reportedly patched up their “hostilities” to team up again. The Governor who also flew down to New Delhi the same day as Zeliang to meet the President and the Prime Minister returned in the same flight with Neiphiu Rio on Saturday.
Speaking to the media at Dimapur airport, the Lok Sabha MP did not deny that his arrival was to meet the legislators camping at Kaziranga, Assam.
“I am here to meet the legislators…Let me meet them and after that I will decide…” Rio responded to a question on whether he was coming to stake claim of the seat of the Chief Minister. While the Governor on arriving Dimapur airport took a chopper to Kohima, Rio on the other hand, after a brief halt at his residence in Sovima left for Kaziranga.
Except for NLA Speaker Chotisuh Sazo; Kiyanilie Peseyie, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs; Kuzholuzo (Azo) Neinu, MLA; Khriehu Liezietsu, advisor, Music Task Force (MTF), new and renewable energy; MLA Vikho-O Yhoshu and PHE Minister, Tokheho Yepthomi, the rest of the NPF legislators along with the Independent were in Kaziranga to meet Rio.
Sources said the four BJP legislators- P. Paiwang Konyak, Imtilemba Sangtam, Dr TM Lotha and Mmhonlumo Kikon are reportedly camped in Dimapur and awaiting the change of leadership to take place and to become a part of the new government.
Though PHE Minister Tokheho Yepthomi did not attend the Kaziranga meeting, source informed the PHE Minister met Rio in Dimapur right after his arrival to extend his solidarity.
According to sources, this new turn of events has the handprint of the BJP leadership at the centre, who is eyeing to play a major role in the coming 2018 Nagaland general election. The presence of Dr M Chuba, former president of the Nagaland State BJP at the Dimapur airport also led to more speculations of the involvement of the BJP on the current political arrangement.
While confirmed details of the meeting at the Kaziranga resort could not be obtained, a source informed that a consensus among the NPF legislators for a new leadership to form a new government could not be reached. The source however stated that Rio’s group would try to stake claim of the government after TR Zeliang, who is expected to arrive in Nagaland from Delhi on Sunday tenders his resignation to the Governor.
We still hold the trump card, claims Dr Shurhozelie
A beleaguered NPF president Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu on Saturday claimed that the party organization is intact and that nothing would go wrong since “we still hold the trump card.”
“Some of our legislators have gone to Kaziranga but they are still NPF legislators and we are in touch with many of them,” the NPF president told the NPF central executive council, central office bearers and division presidents during an emergency meeting.
Other speakers at the meeting pointed out that since the party president and the chief whip of the NPF legislature party are still with the party organization, the present Kaziranga episode will flop like the failed coup d’état of 2015 when majority of the NPF legislators embarked on the misadventure but were compelled to return to the party-fold.
Earlier in the evening, the Speaker of the Assembly, Chotisuh Sazo paid a courtesy call on the party president, a press statement issued by the media & press bureau, NPF central stated.
