HT Correspondent
DIMAPUR, Sept 7: The central executive council (CEC) of the Naga People’s Front (NPF) resolved to make a formal and special appeal to Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio to rejoin the NPF and assume leadership of the party in the greater interest of the party and the Naga people.
Adopting a six-point resolution at the NPF central office in Kohima last evening, the CEC reaffirmed the earlier party central office bearers resolution dated February 12, inviting all former comrades of the NPF to return to the party.
Related Posts:
The meeting said Rio, a strong regionalist and a senior member of the NPF, joined the party in 1974 as the youth president of Kohima division and later served as youth wing president, an NPF statement said.
It said the NPF continues to consider him an integral part of the party, and his return to the NPF, his original political platform, would send a positive message to the public.
The CEC also decided to appeal to all regional-minded sitting and former members of the legislative assembly and members of Parliament to consider rejoining or joining the NPF for the sake of the younger generations.
Further, it appealed to the functionaries of like-minded regional parties to come together under the NPF umbrella to build a united front for advancing the regional agenda and effectively safeguarding the rights and interests of the Naga people.
Appreciating the incumbent NPF president Apong Pongener’s willingness to facilitate any new arrangement within the party’s organisational structure in view of this clarion call to former comrades, the CEC resolved to constitute a central election board in case of any developments.
The CEC also reiterated the party’s earlier resolution calling for an early, honourable, acceptable, and inclusive solution to the long-standing Naga political issue.
It further urged all Naga national workers to reconcile in the larger interest of the Naga people.
Meanwhile, Rio’s Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) has called a meeting of its central executive board at the party headquarters in Kohima on September 12, amid talks of merger of the two regional parties.
