Following the formation of a parallel NPF party, the NPF secretary general K.G Kenye said he was constrained to place the clarifications in public domain in order to make known to the general public, the party workers and all others to appreciate “what is Constitutionally correct and what is a coup that needs to be rejected”.
In a press release, Kenye pointed out that the NPF members of the Nagaland Assembly owe allegiance to two Constitutions– one, the Constitution of India and the second, the Constitution of NPF.
He said that he dissident NPF MLAs have also sworn by these two Constitutions as other NPF MLAs but were “breaching both by challenging the leadership of the chief minister and the party president Dr. Shürhozelie”. He said that the names of the party president (Dr. Shurhozelie) and 47 others of the new Central Executive Committee were approved by the General Convention (GC) as required under the Party Constitution on the November 26, 2014. Kenye said that the Amendments to the party constitution more particularly, the five yearly tenure of the president and the CEC and the holding of GC at the intervals of two and a half years was overwhelmingly adopted.
He said that the outgoing CEC met on the October 9, 2014 and as required under Article IV No.3(b) (ix) and (xi) authorized the president to appoint the date, time and place for the next General Convention and also empowered him to constitute the Election Board. Accordingly, he said on October 20, 2014, the president duly constituted the Election Board with Y. Patton as the chairman with 10 other Members.
On October 23, 2014, the president, by virtue of the authorization of the outgoing CEC as mentioned, notified November 26, 2014 as the date for the GC which was widely published in the media on October 26, 2014.
The Election Board, after series of meetings and consultations and came with a final list on the November 25, 2014 which was presented to the traditional CEC meeting held on that day, a day before the Convention, Kenye said. Chairman of the Election Board, Y. Patton read out the names of all the 48 Central Office bearers, comprising Dr. Shurhozelie, the president and the present team of 47 members which included 13 divisional presidents and few frontal heads as per Article IV No. 5 (b), (d) and (e) for the final approval of the GC.
He said as many as 5221 hands went up at the GC (Nov 26) in approval of the new Central Office bearers after which the president and all Central Office bearers took the pledge as required under the Constitution that consummated the due process of election of office bearers under the Party’s Constitution.
“Article IV No.6 read with aforesaid provisions mandate that election of the president and his team has to be done only at a General Convention and not in casual and parallel forums as the dissidents have unlawfully claimed”, Kenye said.
In this regard, he said the next GC could be called only after two and a half years and not before.
Kenye said if a GC was to be called before two and a half years, an amendment of the Constitution was necessary.
He said that the dissident group seemed to “have flouted all Constitutional norms in their haste to grab power by backdoor” and that the parallel meeting claiming to have elected Noke and his team was nothing but “a coup of sorts that has no foundation in Constitutional values or norms”.
Further, Kenye said that the dissidents’ claim of having elected Kaito as their legislature party leader “does not hold water because a legislature party meeting, to be Constitutional, legal and legitimate, has to be called only by the leader of the Legislature Party of NPF, who is T.R. Zeliang”.
Apart from Zeliang, Kenye pointed out that if anyone had the authority to call the legislature party meeting, it was the party president, Dr. Shurhozelie, “under his plenary powers prescribed under Article V of the Party Constitution”.
He also stated that there was “no parallel legislature party proceedings under the Constitution of India or under the party’s Constitution and whosoever convenes and attends such meetings are liable to be construed as anti-party activist”.
He said under paragraph 2(1)(b) of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution of India, the power to appoint a whip was not with any tom, harry and dick of the political or legislature parties of NPF, but only with the president of the party.
He said that the president, who was duly elected on the November 26, 2014, had appointed Kiyanilie Peseyie as the NPF whip, whose name was already intimated to the Speaker.
He further reminded that “the records of the Assembly cannot be tampered with by casual declarations by dissidents and anti-party activists in this behalf”.
He said that a due mechanism and a Constitutionally sanctioned procedure alone could appoint a whip. In this regard, Kenye said the declaration of Kuzholuzo as whip by the dissidents, earlier appointed by the president as the whip of NPF and who was removed by the same president and replaced by Kiyanilie was unconstitutional and had no place in the records of the Assembly.
Thursday, February 19, 2026