Dimapur, August 8 (MExN): The NPF party led by Lok Sabha MP Neiphiu Rio today suggested that he is the answer to people’s “yearning for acceptable and fruitful leadership.” People’s yearning for acceptable and fruitful leadership compelled Neiphiu Rio to take over the reins of the party as the interim president, asserted a press statement from Rio-led NPF Central Media. Rio whose “leadership resurrected the defunct regional party (then NPC), rechristened it as Naga People’s Front (NPF), groomed and raised it to the present stature is the answer,” it said. The people of Nagaland, it added, deserve a Government that can deliver pragmatic, realistic economic and developmental progress, and transparent governance to fulfill the desires and wishes of the people, and this can be possible only through acceptable and able leadership. In this regard, the statement maintained that Rio with a proven track record for three consecutive terms as “dynamic and visionary” Chief Minister and presently the lone sitting Nagaland State’s MP Lok Sabha is the answer to such concerns. The people’s mandate given to NPF through their franchise and the hard work and contributions of the party workers and leaders at different levels and regions is well within the memory of the party, the statement said. “The NPF shall put in the best possible efforts to understand the needs of the people at the grass root level,” it added. Reflecting on Rio’s achievement over the years, it maintained that after years of struggle and hardship, an almost nonexistent party could take over the reins of power through people’s mandate in 2003, forming the NPF led DAN-I Government followed by the DAN-II in 2008 under his leadership. “The party loyalists who elected the NPF led DAN under Rio’s leadership to power by their sacred mandate for three consecutive elections, including the general public cannot be taken for a ride.” The statement further maintained that “party leaders and functionaries equally are utterly exhausted, pained and provoked by the continues, disorderly handling of the party function and administration, to serve the narrow and vested interests of a select few individuals of the party power that be.” Due to autocratic and dictatorial functioning of the party leadership, NPF is frustratingly collapsing and “losing its hard earned, venerable regional stature and credentials in the eye of the citizens,” it said. It also alleged that after Rio’s departure as the lone Member of Parliament representing Nagaland state in 2014, “there has been a marked mismanagement in the party led state government as well as in the affairs of the party under the stewardship of Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu.” “There were no person to check and balance the arbitrary behavior of the erstwhile President,” it alleged, adding that he started behaving in an “arbitrary manner by adopting bipartisan and monopolistic policies.” To answer people’s yearning and demand for an accommodative and sincere leadership, and with more than two-third majority of the NPF legislators having unanimously chosen him, Rio had to accept and take over the reins of the party as the interim NPF President, it added. Dr. Shurhozelie’s removal as President of the NPF, it noted, was demanded with reason, and vision for the NPF's future prospects. “This very crucial and difficult moment, aimed at change for the better needs to be understood by all NPF functionaries, party men, women and legislators in supporting and upholding the party commitment,” it added.
