Our Correspondent
Kohima | August 12
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio today said that he has no idea about any merger deal between the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and the BJP after 2023 state elections as alleged by the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) on Thursday.
Replying to media persons on the sidelines of an official programme at Kisama, Rio said “Some people are crazy. That is questioning the leadership. No party, nor me had never said anything like that.”
“It is their own story. It is not our story,” he said adding “if they can question their own integrity, that is alright but who are they to question my integrity,” Rio said.
The Chief Minister meanwhile said that the NDPP’s alliance with the BJP would go on. “The pre-poll partnership will continue, but I don't know anything about the post-poll merger,” said Rio.
On the Congress speculations that Rio and central leaders of the saffron party are contemplating having elections in Nagaland by December this year instead of February 2023, he said “to have early polls is not our demand… we do not know what the government of India is thinking but we would prefer to have the elections on time”.
The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) had on Thursday claimed that the NDPP is trying to install a BJP government in the state.
NPCC president K Therie told a press conference that the recent declaration by allies NDPP and the BJP that the two parties would jointly contest the 2023 Nagaland Assembly election on a 40:20 seat-sharing formula was aimed at forming a BJP government in the Northeastern state.
