The Naga People’s Front has called for a meeting on Saturday with its leaders to decide if the party should continue its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state, PTI reported. NPF is a partner in the BJP-led coalition in Manipur.
The leaders decided to review the alliance as they felt that the BJP does not pay attention to the Naga People’s Front’s ideas and suggestions. “The BJP has never respected the spirit of alliance since the formation of government in 2016,” Awangbou Newmai, the state unit chief of the Naga People’s Front said. “There have been instances when their leaders have refused to consider our members as alliance partners.”
Four leaders from the NPF are part of the 60-member Legislative Assembly and one of them, Losii Dikho, is a Cabinet minister. Newmai said that the BJP has not kept the promises it made when the alliance was formed. “The NPF has always considered the BJP as its big brother, but that did not stop the saffron party from bluffing to us,” he said. “We haven’t got our due respect.”
The NPF had on Wednesday decided to summon all four of its MLAs to the meeting on Saturday to decide if they want to continue the alliance with BJP, according to The Times of India.
In response to Newmai, BJP spokesperson Chungkham Bijoy said the allegations were “totally baseless and unfounded”. Government spokesperson Th Radheshyam Singh said there was no problem within the coalition and that everything would be sorted out once Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh returned to Imphal.
On Thursday, Biren Singh had said that NPF’s demands will be taken up after the Lok Sabha elections get over. “There was an understanding between NPF and BJP during the formation of government in the state,” Singh told ANI. “But due to some unavoidable circumstances, the demands of NPF leaders are pending. These will be taken up by senior party leaders in the state after the Lok Sabha elections are over.”
In March 2017, BJP had won only 21 seats. The party managed to form a government with the help of three local parties in the state – the National People’s Party, Naga People’s Party and the Lok Janshakti Party.
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