Kohima, May 21 (MExN): The NPF Kohima division today stated that the suspension of former Chief Minister and present Lok Sabha MP, Neiphiu Rio from the NPF has not come as a shock to the division since “we have been aware of his anti-party activities ever since he demitted the Chief Minister’s office and went to the parliament.”
The suspension has come as a big relief, it said and thanked the Disciplinary Action Committee and the party President for “taking the much-awaited decision to get rid of the ring leaders who have been trying their utmost to de-stabilise the NPF-led DAN Government under Chief Minister TR Zeliang.”
In a press release issued by its President, Goneiu Sirie and Press Secretary, Alo Yakhro, NPF Kohima division recounted that after his exit from the Congress party, Rio had no option but to join the regional party, the Nagaland People’s Council (NPC), in October 2002. Fully utilising the platform of the regional party and with the help from the party rank and files, Rio assumed power as Chief Minister, it said.
“But everything did not go as planned after introduction of mandatory Downsizing of the Ministry and party legislators rebelled against Rio’s leadership. It was only through the unstinted support of the party President Dr Shurhozelie that his first tenure was salvaged after he was reduced to minority within the NPF legislature party,” the release stated.
The division further asserted that the supreme sacrifice made by the party President enabled the regional party to retain its symbol. The same regional political party catapulted Rio to political heights he never dreamt of, it said. “Unfortunately, it is that very same regional political party which Rio tried his best to dismantle in the last two years or so.”
Meanwhile, the release expressed dismay that few individuals have been writing in the local media against the suspension of Rio, and that it was Rio himself who was solely responsible for the achievements that the party could bring about in the last one decade or so.
