Setback for BJP: Ruling NPF to end pre- poll ties

In a setback to the BJP, the ruling Naga People’s Front led by Shurhozelie Liezietsu on Tuesday hinted at severing its ties with the saffron party ahead of the Assembly elections in FebruaryMarch.

Sources said that the party doesn’t plant to give tickets to many Cabinet ministers and chief minister T. R. Zeliang who has been at loggerheads with Mr Liezietsu ever since he replaced him as the chief minister after a bitter power struggle last year.

Mr Liezietsu is ending the ties with the BJP over the saffron party’s support to Mr Zeliang during his bid for the chief minister’s post, sources said.

The indication from NPF on dumping the BJP came on a day when former home minister and veteran NPF legislator Y. Patton resigned from the Assembly and joined the BJP in the presence BJP general secretary Ram Madhab and Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at Kohima.

In the 60- member Nagaland Assembly, the NPF has 46 MLAs, the BJP has four and there are eight Independents. Two seats are vacant following the demise of a legislator and Mr Patton’s exit.

Though the NPF has not officially announced the end of its alliance with the BJP, sources in the ruling party said that the decision was taken during the office bearers’ meeting held in the party’s central headquarters in Kohima a few days back.

The ongoing infighting between the NPF president and Mr Zeliang came into the open when the youth wing of the NPF launched a movement to dethrone the current government.

The NPF’s central youth wing has also launched a separate four- day sitin protest outside the Raj Bhavan in Kohima to protest against the governor’s decision to dismiss Mr Liezietsu and reinstating Mr Zeliang as chief minister in July 2017.

The NPF youth wing is demanding what it calls “restoration of the Constitution of India”, dismissal of “the unconstitutional government of Mr Zeliang” and recalling of governor P. B. Acharya.

Asserting that NPF has decided to go it alone in the Assembly elections besides fielding candidates against the BJP, sources in the NPF, however, did not rule out the chances of a post- poll alliance with the BJP.

Sources in the BJP told this newspaper that they were planning to induct some more heavy- weight NPF leaders into the party.