Nagaland Assembly poll will be held with or without solution to Naga issue: NPF leader

HT Correspondent
DIMAPUR, July 13: Naga People’s Front (NPF) Legislature Party leader and co-chairman of the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Kuzholuzo (Azo) Nienu on Tuesday asserted that election to the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly due early next year will take place with or without solution to the Naga political issue.
“If the solution comes early then election may delay but if the solution does not arrive then it will be held at its usual time,” the NPF leader said at the 17th Chizami Assembly constituency office bearers’ consultative meeting at Pfutsero Tourist Lodge.
Nienu said the Nagas cannot go on without arriving at a solution to the vexed Naga political issue.
Saying that the NPF does not support any Naga particular political group but supports all the groups equally, he said the main resolution of the NPF party on the Naga political issue is to arrive at an honourable, acceptable and inclusive solution, the NPF press bureau said in a release.
Reiterating that the regional NPF party took birth because of the Naga political issue, Nienu said the party does not belong to any individual or leader but to the whole Naga people. He also said the NPF, which represents the Naga identity, is deeply rooted to the Naga people unlike the BJP which may have deep roots in India but not in Nagaland and the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) which is only about five years old.
Nienu’s remarks assume significance as the NDPP, BJP, NPF and two Independents are part of the opposition-less UDA government in Nagaland.
Dismissing rumours and news circulating in the media that with the defection of 21 party MLAs to NDPP, the NPF set up has been weakened, he said, “In reality the story is totally opposite as the grassroots NPF is very much intact.”
Nienu also asserted that the NPF is not a party to merge with any other political party. “Any other political party can merge with the NPF as the party belongs to the Naga people and it has no ownership,” he added.
He termed the 21 MLAs who defected to the NDPP as followers and not leaders.
The NPF leader also asserted that the NPF will form the next government in the state or it will be the king maker.
NPF secretary general Achumbemo Kikon, in his speech, said the NPF had always stood for the Naga people in the past and will do so in future also.