After Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio, deputy chief minister Y. Patton and the State BJP president Temjen Imna Along, were summoned to Delhi by Union Home minister Amit Shah on August 19 for an emergency meeting, the outcome was yet to be disclosed.
As reported, chief minister Neiphiu Rio met with Amit Shah on August 21. There has been no information about what was discussed between the two except for the tweet from Rio who described the meeting as “fruitful”. Significantly, the two top Nagaland BJP leaders- deputy chief minister Y. Patton and state BJP president and minister Temjen Imna Along met the union home minister. The fact that Shah met Rio separately, then later Patton and Imna Along, was not lost on those following the recent political developments.
Reports emanating from Delhi speculated that the central BJP leaders summoned Rio, Patton and Along over formation of an all-party government with NPF. The reports said BJP was not keen on being on the same boat with the NPF because the latter had rejected continuance of DAN alliance for the 2018 assembly election.
The reports also said the BJP leaders were of the firm opinion that since all parties were together under Core Committee for Naga political issue, the need to form an all-party united government for the same issue (Naga political issue) did not arise nor was it a necessity. The state unit of the BJP were placed in a quandary after NPF agreed to the call for an all-party government. According to reports, BJP sources felt that the development was aimed to check mate it and ensure that it had no more space for political maneuvering.
On the other hand, there had been wide speculations of NPF willing to revive DAN alliance with BJP to replace the NDPP. Eventually, the coming around of both NDPP and NPF leaders on the need to come together has strengthened Rio’s hand.
Though sources had earlier informed Nagaland Post that the party’s central leadership might give its nod to the new political arrangement on the condition that the present ministry was not disturbed, it remains to be seen as to what the central BJP leaders will officially react to the all-party government.
However, there seems to be little space for the BJP since the prospect of having to go it alone in the next assembly election is going to be a herculean task.
This may be seen from how the BJP needs the crutch of regional parties to establish itself in states where it has no considerable presence. According to sources here, the state BJP unit, after much dilly dally eventually signed the resolution with the NDPP, NPF and two Independent MLAs and agreed in principle for an all-party government under the nomenclature “Nagaland United Government”, formalising a move to work together towards “achieving a common goal” for an early solution.