DIMAPUR, MAY 25 (MExN): Playing the secular card, former Chief Minister and NPF legislature party leader, TR Zeliang on Friday called upon “all secular minded people to vote in favour of C Apok Jamir,” the NPF candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing the last leg of the bye-election campaign to the lone Lok Sabha poll, Zeliang appreciated the Congress, NPP, AAP and “even some BJP and JDU” for extending their support to the NPF and said “this unity of the secular forces will create a huge impact in ensuring victory in the upcoming bye poll.”
A press communiqué from NPF press bureau said the campaign for the forthcoming by-election winded up in Mon town. In his address, Zeliang reminded the people not to be confused between the NPF and NDPP as NPF is a regional party unlike the NDPP which is a Nationalist party.
The former Chief Minister also accused the present PDA Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio for creating chaos in the state affairs for the last four years after his journey to Delhi miserably failed.
He alleged that Rio, after failing to get ministerial berth at Delhi parliament returned to state politics and tried every means to dismantle the government as well as the NPF party for the past four years.
Lambasting the much acclaimed PDA govt's promise of repairing all district headquarter roads within sixty days, the former chief minister asserted that no funds had been brought to the state by the ruling government except the money that were sanctioned during his last ministry.
He also said the austerity measures and the anti-VIP culture introduced by PDA government has become a mockery as people have woken up to see the reality for themselves in the way the government of the day is being run. C. Apok Jamir in his speech appealed to the people of Nagaland to vote for him, stating that the upcoming by-election will be a litmus test for the Nagas and shall be crucial for determining the future of the Nagas.
He likened it to a secular test of the Nagas. Jamir also assured that on being elected, he “shall become the voice for the Nagas at the centre and stand for the cause of the Nagas.”
