Former working president and treasurer of the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee Bobby Panicker, and former Deputy Speaker of Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA), T Yangseo Sangtam, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi.
The two leaders were welcomed into the party by BJP national general secretary (Org) B.L. Santhosh, BJP national secretary (i/c Nagaland) Anil K Antony, advisor for Tribal Affairs & Election, H Tovihoto Ayemi and Nagaland BJP president Benjamin Yepthomi.
Bobby Panicker, who also served as vice chairman of the North East Congress Coordination Committee, was expelled from the Congress in January 2024 for a period of six years. He claimed that his expulsion was due to “jealousy” and an “individual matter,” accusing a Nagaland Congress functionary and an All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of conspiring to remove him.
T Yangseo Sangtam, who was elected unopposed as the Deputy Speaker of the NLA in 2022, had earlier won a by-election in November 2021 following the death of Naga People’s Front (NPF) legislator T. Torechu. He contested the 2023 assembly elections as a candidate of the Republican Party of India (Athawale) from the 60 Pungro Kiphire constituency but was unsuccessful.
Informing this in a post on X, Benjamin said he also called on BL Santhosh and “held detailed discussions and deliberations on the party’s organisational activities in Nagaland during the last one year and further briefed him on the State’s performance in the first phase of the Sadasyata Abhiyan membership drive 2024.”