Ao Senso Telongjem Dimapur (ASTD- Ao Union) held a marathon meeting with all the Ao village unions of Dimapur on Sunday that lasted for over 12 hours. Around 4000 people attended the meeting held at the residence of ASTD treasurer.
The Ao community had summoned four of the candidates who were yet to retire from contesting. However, none of the candidates could make it to the meeting, since they were supposedly out of station. As a result, some youth volunteers locked the houses of these candidates and were stationed in and around the vicinity.
It was reported that the union had resolved to excommunicate those candidates including their immediate family members for a period of 30 years, if they failed to retire from the elections before February 1. Some demanded that the non-cooperative candidates should be excommunicated from any area wherever the Ao union is established.
However, the village union leaders of the four candidates sought more time to find their whereabouts and convince them to retire from contesting.