Bonnie Konyak
September 7
With time running out for the next Assembly Election slated for early 2008, senior Congressman SC Jamir and former Chief Minister of Nagaland presently serving as Goa Governor appears all set to return to State politics and plans to contest the coming State Assembly election from Tuli Assembly Constituency under Mokokchung district. Highly placed sources in the State Congress party have disclosed the certainty of Jamir’s return to head the party in the coming Assembly elections. With this decision, Congress party managers are now scouting for a constituency for Jamir to contest from. And doing the rounds is Tuli Assembly Constituency currently represented by T. Tali an NPF legislator but elected on a Congress ticket during the last elections.
Interestingly, the NPF had yesterday revoked the suspension order of present Tuli MLA, Tali. It maybe recalled that the Tuli MLA had been suspended along with K Therie, Z. Obed and Vatsu Meru for participating in anti-party activities. When contacted by The Morung Express, Tali said that he had also heard of the former Chief Minister’s intention to contest in his constituency. He also said that ‘maybe’ Jamir’s return could have been another reason for the NPF Disciplinary Action Committee considering his case. “Because if he (Jamir) comes back, a new candidate will not be able to face him in the election” he said emphasizing that till today, his position was strongest in the constituency. Tali however seemed to resent the fact that Jamir was eyeing his territory for a comeback saying that everybody has their traditionally established areas and the Goa Governor would have been better off contesting in his village or Mokokchung town. “He is a seasoned politician, it will be a serious matter if he came here (Tuli) to be defeated”, said Tali.
Nevertheless, to put things into perspective on Tali’s political position in Tuli constituency, it will be of interest to note that the present MLA has been elected five times from Tuli. On three occasions, he was elected on a Congress ticket while in 1987 he was elected on a NPC ticket and the first time in 1977 he was elected on an UDF ticket. Significantly, the two times he lost an election from Tuli was when he contested on a non-Congress ticket. So the question is whether Tuli A/C is a strong bastion of the Congress party or is it the popularity of Tali’s leadership which counts.
Meanwhile, though the Congress party is hush-hush over the whole matter of Jamir contesting from Tuli, a party source said that Jamir’s return to state politics was confirmed and it was only logical that he chooses Tuli for comeback as his constituency since his son Apok Jamir was the MLA in his home constituency of 26 Aonglenden and Tuli had given Tali an astounding win under the Congress banner. Another highly placed source in the party said that the Goa Governor could not possibly announce his intention at the moment since he was the constitutional head of a state but not denying the queries made by this newspaper said that if Jamir chose to contest in Tuli, MLA Tali had no chance of winning the 2008 election.
However, it was informed that the DCC (I) Mokokchung has recommended one Imti Jamir from Kangtsung village as the Congress candidate for the Tuli seat and local Congress unit denied that Jamir was a contender for the Congress ticket though party workers from the district were also of the view that the ultimate decision would be passed by the higher ups in Delhi.
Meanwhile, a close confidant of the former Chief Minister revealed that Jamir and some citizens of Tuli Constituency had held a ‘closed door’ meeting at his residence on September 4 but the details of the meeting was not divulged. The confidant also disclosed that when Jamir comes back, he would hold a ‘major portfolio’ in the State Congress party. However at the moment, Jamir is said to be waiting on the Central Congress leaders, who were busy with the nuclear deal debate, to formally relieve him from his duties as Governor of Goa.
