Reacting to the series of allegations against the BJP-NDPP alliance by the Congress party, State BJP president, Temjen Imna Along maintained there was no need for the alliance to blow its trumpet but let development works do the talking.
The state BJP president said this while addressing the media at Niathu Resort, Chümoukedima in the presence of BJP national spokesperson and Nagaland in-charge Nalin Kohli.
Along cited various popular Prime Minister’s programmes which have built a tryst towards development of infrastructures in the State and also building infrastructure for roads, railways, PHE, school etc. He said that all these speak for themselves and so there was no need for the BJP to blow its trumpet.
Along said the quantum of transformation taking place in Nagaland besides infrastructure, also involved allowing transparency in governance, adopting Nagaland Staff Selection Board (NSSB) for providing jobs to genuine candidates and promoting every aspect in such a small state where the revenue was so meager and added all these deserve to be appreciated by one and all.
He said the people were the best judge to decide on whether the NDPP-BJP alliance has delivered as alleged by the Congress which, he said ruled the country for around 60 years and Nagaland for over 20 years.
Along admitted that there could be some hiccups as in any alliance but NDPP-BJP alliance was true and strong.
He said the five years of a pre-poll alliance government was historic in Nagaland politics as it was the first pre-poll alliance and also one which has provided a stable government to the people.
BJP focused on performance: National BJP spokesman and in-charge Nagaland Nalin Kohli while supplementing Along said there was a difference between the working system of the Congress and BJP and its coalition partners. He said the Congress model was based on power and criticism for the sake of criticizing but BJP’s model was based on serving and performance by ensuring that development and schemes reach the intended beneficiaries.
Slamming the Congress, Kohli said in Nagaland the Congress model of campaigning was based on press conferences and criticizing the alliance government but the BJP was focused on reaching out till the booth level and interacting with the voters. He said the BJP-NDPP has one common agenda– to serve the people and usher in more development.
Kohli said BJP has no problem with Congress if the latter only wants to resort to press conferences (to campaign) but for BJP, the Prime Minister Modi has shown the difference of what was in the party model for the past eight years and chief minister Rio with BJP in coalition has shown the same in Nagaland.
On the issue of 40(NDPP):20 (BJP) seat sharing agreement, Kohli said it was a political arrangement and it did not mean that one party is bigger or stronger than the other.
Exuding confidence that the pre-poll alliance will return power, Kohli expressed the hope that the people of the state would repose their faith on alliance given the affection work and developmental projects the Central and the State government had carried out in the state and to continue the good work of a “double engine sarkar”.
When asked about the silence of BJP on the demand of Janajati Dharma Sanskriti Suraksha Manch (Assam) to remove Scheduled Tribe status of people who have embraced Christianity, Kohli claimed that BJP has no knowledge of such organization while reiterating that the Manch has nothing to do with BJP.
He alleged that the story could be a “conspiracy by the Congress party or somebody else to some-how damage BJP”.
Kohli also the question should be directed at the particular Manch since for BJP, it believes in the Constitution as contained under Article 19 which ensures freedom of speech and expression.
Along also said that any organization’s name that correlates itself with Hindi does not mean that BJP was involved or responsible all the time. “Just because somebody’s name is Ram, Ramesh or Naidu etc. it doesn’t mean that it’s BJP party,” Along argued.
Along said such utterances was just propaganda of some vested interest political parties particularly at a time when elections are to be held in Christian dominated states like Nagaland and Meghalaya.
On Sarma’s urgent visit: To a query on the reasons behind Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s recent air dashing to Dimapur on February 9 night from Guwahati, purportedly to diffuse the strain on the NDPP-BJP alliance, Kohli said there should be no confusion on such speculations which were being “sold by political opponents”.
Kohli said Sarma, who is also the convenor of NEDA, enjoyed good working relationship with different leaders of the region including chief minister Rio. He said Sarma’s visit to Nagaland was to discuss various issues related to election campaign and ideas about what the alliance could do.
“Contrary to what has been mentioned that there is a crisis or any kind of negativity, I would reject that completely. The alliance is strong and was always strong,” he said.
When asked about the unfinished multi-disciplinary sports complex in Dimapur, Kohli assured that he would personally take up the issue.
State BJP president Temjen Imna Along also welcomed former legislator Khekhaho Assumi to the BJP whom he described as “an eminent leader”.
Meanwhile, Kohli informed that a galaxy of leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda and others have been requested to campaign for the party and the candidates.
