Dimapur/ Kohima: Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Tuesday expressed confidence that “something positive” would be achieved on the Naga political issue if the NDA government returns to power at the Centre.
“The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had understood the uniqueness of the Naga history and tried to solve the decades-long political problem. After the Narendra Modi government came to power, it came under focus again,” Rio said at an election campaign in Dimapur.
After the dates for Lok Sabha polls were announced on March 10, Rio had lamented that the solution to the Naga political issue could not be found before the elections.
“We were hoping against hope that the solution will come before the election…. If it (the solution) does not come, it will be problem for our Naga society to carry on,” he had said on that day at a programme of the completion of one year of his People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) government of which the BJP is a part.
Even after the signing of the framework agreement with the NSCN(IM) in 2015 and six Naga nationalist political groups joining the peace talks separately, there has not been a breakthrough on the Naga problem.
A new government, which came to power in Nagaland under Rio early last year, had raised hopes of a solution to the Naga political problem.
The Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP)-led PDA government dethroned the NPF government of 15 years in the February 2018 state polls.
Sitting NDPP MP Tohekho Yepthomi is the candidate of the PDA for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland.
“For how long can we drag on by making the Naga political issue an election agenda? If we want a settlement, we need to be in the ruling side (at the Centre),” he said.
Leaders of other PDA constituents such as the BJP, the JD(U) and the NPP also addressed the poll meeting.
Elections to the lone Lok Sabha seat in the state will be held on April 11. By-election to Aonglenden Assembly constituency will also be held on the same day.
Meanwhile in Kohima, the opposition Naga Peoples Front (NPF) Tuesday announced that Dr Lorho S Pfoze would contest from Outer Manipur LS seat, one of the two constituencies of the neighbouring state.
About the party’s candidate for Nagaland, NPF president Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu said, “Some good candidates are on the cards. We are on talks with some like-minded parties and will declare our decision in a day or two.”
For the by-poll in Aonglenden, the NPF fielded Toshipokba, a former MLA who had defeated Congress stalwart and five-time chief minister Dr S C Jamir in a by-poll in 2011. (PTI)
