Guwahati/Kohima, Jan. 12: Former Nagaland chief minister and BJP national executive member Hokishe Sema will lead a BJP-led Opposition front — the Nagaland Democratic Alliance — in the Assembly elections starting February 26, amid speculation that the anti-Congress combine has the tacit support of the NSCN (I-M).
A decision to this effect was taken after parleys between the Nagaland People’s Front and Nagaland BJP leaders with NDA convenor George Fernandes and BJP national president Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi.
Speaking to The Telegraph from New Delhi, Hokishe Sema said the BJP high command has approved the Nagaland Opposition’s decision to appoint him a convenor of the joint front.
Chief minister S.C. Jamir claimed that the Opposition was hand-in-glove with the NSCN (I-M) and said several Opposition leaders are camping in New Delhi to meet Isak Chisi Swu and Th. Muivah.
“This time the elections will be between Indian nationalism and secessionism,” he said. Jamir is all set to become the first chief minister of Nagaland to complete two terms in office. Sema, apart from Jamir, is the only chief minister who could complete a full five-year term.
Setting the agenda of the new front, senior Nagaland People’s Front member and former Lok Sabha MP Imchalemba Ao told this correspondent over phone from New Delhi, “We want to install a government favourable to talks in Kohima.”
Refuting charges of being “hand-in-glove” with the NSCN (I-M), Imchalemba said, “We are asking all the underground groups to keep their distance from elections, so there is no question of us taking their support.”
Nagaland Congress sources claimed that given the equation between the NSCN (I-M) and Jamir, the outfit’s tacit support to the Opposition candidates could not be ruled out.
The NSCN (I-M), however, said there was no question of meddling in the elections.
The Amsterdam-based Naga International Support Centre today quoted NSCN (I-M) chairman Isak Chisi Swu as saying, “Non-interference in these elections means that the NSCN will neither boycott the polls nor meddle in it.”