Al Ngullie
Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 25
The leader of Nagaland’s Congress Legislature Party (CLP) has announced that the Indian National Congress legislators of the State will not resign – at least not “immediately” – from the Joint Legislators’ Forum (JLF) or opposition bench as widely speculated following a recent tiff with the ruling Naga People’s Front-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (NPF, DAN).
Further, more surprisingly, the opposition leader has said that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is expected to announce the State’s 2013 assembly elections likely before December 20.
The statement of the opposition bench’s chief may be considered a soothing balm for the NPF’s nerves as was reflected in a rare, personally-addressed official letter of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio to Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) president SI Jamir days ago. The CM’s letter came amidst speculations that that Congress legislators were preparing to decamp from the forum and opposition bench and hence, in effect, compel a President’ Rule in Nagaland, technically.
CLP leader Tokheho Yepthomi clarified Sunday night, November 25 that he was misquoted by a local newspaper that had claimed him as having said that the nature and form of the political ‘solution’ would be revealed to the Naga people ‘before Christmas.’ Yepthomi interacted with The Morung Express Sunday, during which he said, among others, the Congress legislators would not resign from the JLF or the opposition bench.
This is for citizens’ note that the term of the current Neiphiu Rio-led DAN government would complete its 5-year tenure on March 26, 2013. The current office, the coalition’s second stint, started on March 27, 2008.
“We said that we are prepared to vacate our position if the NPF is ready to pave the way…
We are not immediately resigning. We will not resign. Even if we decided to resign it won’t help the situation. Everything is Okay now,” the former NPF Minister for Roads & Bridges told this reporter Sunday.
Nonetheless, the Congress leader has made a statement which sufficiently alludes that the NPF is not out of the woods yet on the current issue of resignation-and-political solution going on between the two political parties. “We are yet to discuss this issue in the Joint Legislators’ Forum. We have requested the JLF chairman (Kiyanilie Peseyie) to hold discussions at the earliest possible,” the CLP chief said.
A related topic he broached was about the to-be-or-not-to-be State Assembly Elections scheduled for 2013 for Nagaland State. The CLP leaders has said that in the event a solution from the GOI-NSCN dialogue does not materialize before Christmas, the Election Commission of India is expected to announce the polls by December 20 as the ECI’s traditional calendar goes.
Clarifying on the mentioned newspaper report, the Congress leader said he was misquoted. In reiteration, he said:
“(I had said that) If a solution does not come before Christmas, anytime before December 20 the commission is likely to announce (the election dates), and not that solution would be known before Christmas as reported,” Yepthomi said.
Two other states, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, are also ready to go to the assembly polls. ‘If a ‘solution’ is not arrived by then, the polls will likely go ahead,’ the CLP chief added.
