Nagaland Speaker Sharingain Longkumer has dismissed petitions for the disqualification of seven MLAs of the Opposition Naga People’s Front (NPF).
The NPF had filed the petitions against the lawmakers in 2019 for ‘wilfully’ defying its collective decision to support Congress candidate K.L. Chishi in the Lok Sabha elections that year.
The seven MLAs had ahead of the election issued a ‘declaration’ supporting Tokheho Yepthomi of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party, which runs the government in alliance with the BJP. This, the NPF had said, was tantamount to voluntarily giving up the party’s membership.
The Speaker said in his “final hearing” on Tuesday there were no sufficient grounds to presume that the MLAs in question had voluntarily given up the membership of the NPF.
The seven MLAs had in their statement said they were angry with the NPF for not fielding a candidate and backing the Congress nominee “against the principle of regionalism”.
The NPF had subsequently suspended them from the party’s primary membership after serving them show-cause notices.
Trouble within BJP
After Manipur, the BJP is facing trouble in Nagaland with 12 of its legislators, including Ministers, camping in New Delhi seeking the ouster of State unit president and Minister Temjen Imna Along Longkumer.
Ten district unit presidents of the BJP had earlier written to the central leadership seeking his removal, resenting his ‘autocrating’ and ‘dictatorial’ style of functioning.
“We met national president J.P. Nadda on Monday and discussed the way he [Mr. Longkumer] is running the party. We want the party to uphold the policy of one man, one post, and we want a State unit president we can go to,” said a BJP leader on condition of anonymity.