EX-CM, 11 others join BJP in Nagaland

BJP SOURCES SAID THE PARTY’S GENERAL SECRETARY RAM MADHAV, WHO IS ALSO IN CHARGE FOR THE NORTHEASTERN STATES, WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN WINNING THEM OVER

NEWDELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received a boost in Nagaland with three senior leaders joining the party in Dimapur on Monday.

Former chief minister and Congress leader KL Chishi, sitting legislator and former home minister Yanthungo Patton of the Naga People’s Front (NPF), and independent MLA N Jacob Zhimomi are prominent among about a dozen of Nagaland leaders who joined the party.

BJP sources said the party’s general secretary Ram Madhav, who is also in charge for the northeastern states, was instrumental in winning over these leaders.

“Preserving the diversity of every culture is BJP’S priority. This election is for solution,” Madhav said at the event to mark the joining of these leaders.

These leaders crossed over, even as India’s ruling party negotiates with regional outfits for a pre-poll alliance in Nagaland.

It currently has a pact with the NPF and is a part of the government. The NPF however, is passing through a turbulent phase with chief minister TR Zeliang and party president Shurhozelie Liezietsu engaged in a bitter battle over finalising candidates for the polls.

BJP leadership in Delhi is in contact with both Zeliang and Liezietsu in the absence of clarity over who would finally leading the party in the February 27 vote.

Madhav has also opened a channel of communication with former chief minister and Lok Sabha MP Neiphiu Rio, who quit the NPF last week to join the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) led by veteran Chingwang Konyak.

“We hope to finalise our partner within a fortnight,” a BJP leader said.

The BJP is conscious of its limited appeal in the state and wants to leverage its position as India’s ruling party along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal appeal to gain the most out of an alliance.

The next government and its stability is crucial for the centre to take the Naga peace accord to a logical end. The Centre and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) had on August 3, 2015, signed an agreement to end country’s oldest insurgency. It was a year after the government appointed RN Ravi as the interlocutor for the Naga peace talks in August 2014. Ravi and the NSCN are yet to reach to the framework agreement that will lead to execution of the deal.