Hitting out at chief minister, Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsü for the recent appointment of Kuzholuzo (Azo) Neinu as DAN chairman (replacing T.R. Zeliang), rebel legislator Merentoshi Jamir said only Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsü approved the appointment and not the BJP and Independent MLAs.
In a statement, Merentoshi pointed out that DAN was a conglomeration of various political parties such as- NPF and BJP including independent MLAs. Therefore, since the appointment of Azo as DAN chairman did not pervade beyond NPF, it was therefore, “a politically and legally infirm exercise”. Merentoshi also pointed out that when T.R. Zeliang was proposed by Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsü as DAN chairman, it was a unanimous election by all DAN legislators comprising of 48 NPF, 4BJP and 8 Independents on February 22, 2017. Zeliang still enjoyed confidence of DAN legislators said Merentoshi and so in order to replace him (Zeliang), it would required approval of majority of NPF, BJP and Independent MLAs.
In this regard, he noted that the cabinet notification dated July 10, according cabinet status to Azo Neinu was “ultra vires” to the law on such appointments and that the notification was also “void ab initio” since Azo did not have the sanction of NPF, BJP and Independent MLAs to be DAN chairman. Further, noted that it was “strange” that the notification did not even invoke the name of the Governor as required under article 166 of the constitution of India.
In the light of the above, Merentoshi said MLAs and public “may therefore ignore” the notification as “rubbish produced by a beleaguered chief minister and as lacking legal validity.”
He said only T.R. Zeliang has the distinction of obtaining approval of all NPF, BJP and Independent MLAs on February 22, 2017 and continues as DAN chairman with cabinet status and that the appointment was revocable only by the same conglomeration of MLAs “and not by Dr.Shürzhozelie, who is a minority chief minister with the support of only 10 MLAs and awaiting his own exit.” Merentoshi also asked Dr. Shürhozelie not to overlook the democratic system by doing as he like because of his greed to hang on to power with support of minority MLAs.
Hitting out at Dr. Shürhozelie, Merentoshi said it was surprising that while Dr. Shürhozelie claimed to be “a Christian to the core”, he chose Sunday (July 9) to “commit evil acts of dispossessing his own party MLAs of their portfolios as ministers, parliamentary secretaries, advisors and chairmen.” Merentoshi also accused Dr. Shürhozelie of withdrawing vehicles, security and official bungalows and displayed “his sense of vengeance not a forte of a Christian.”