Guwahati: Bowing to the sustained pressure mounted on him by agitating tribal bodies, Nagaland chief minister T R Zeliang on Sunday resigned paving the way for installation of new chief minister in the hill state that is now reeling under indefinite bandh called by agitating tribal groups.
An emergent meeting of the legislature party of the Nagaland People’s Front (NPF) is scheduled to select the successor of Zeliang on Monday.
Zeliang submitted his resignation to the Governor P B Acharya who accepting the resignation asked Zeliang to continue till an alternative arrangement was put in place.
Meanwhile, speculations are rife that Lok Sabha MP from Nagaland and former chief minister Neiphiu Rio is going to replace Zeliang given that about 50 MLAs in Nagaland House extending support to him as the next CM following a meeting held at a resort in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park (KNP) on Saturday.
In a statement issued earlier on Sunday evening, Zeliang stated, “I, Shri T R Zeliang, Chief Minister of Nagaland has decided to step down from office. And to select a new consensus leader to succeed me, I hereby, call for an emergency of the NPF legislature party meeting at 10 am tomorrow (February 20, 2017) at the State Banquet Hall.”
The NPF legislature party meeting will be followed by the meeting of the legislature party of Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) at the same venue. The NPF is the main constituent of the ruling DAN.
In the 60-member Assembly in Nagaland, the ruling DAN comprises of 48 NPF MLAs including suspended legislator Imkong Imchen, four BJP MLAs and eight independents.
The agitating tribal groups, Nagaland Tribes Action Committee (NTAC) and Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) have been agitating demanding the ouster of Zeliang for his attempt to hold Urban Local Bodies (ULB) polls in the state with 33 % reservation for women despite strong opposition from the civil society groups.
The election had to be declared null and void on February 1 after eruption of violent protests that claimed three lives.
