NPF withdraws support to BJP’s Manipur Government

TheNaga People's Front (NPF) has decided to withdraw its support to the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) government in Manipur but it unlikely to rock the BirenSingh led government as he has numbers.

The NPF's spokesperson Achumbemo Kikon announced the NPF's decision to withdraw support from the BJP-ledcoalition government.The  the NPF has hada long meeting at Kohima today and it has decided to withdraw its support fromthe BJP government in the northeastern state of Manipur.

"Wehad a long meeting at NPF central office in Kohima and decided to withdrawsupport in principle from the BJP led Manipur government." Said Kiko. The NPFhas long been alleging that the BJP government in the state does not pay heedto its ideas and suggestions.

However,the decision will not make Biren Singh government minority since NPF has onlyfour MLAs in the 60-member assembly. The BJP, on the other hand, has 29legislators in the House.

Eightof the 28 Congress MLAs, who had won the 2017 polls, defected to the BJP lastyear, taking its tally from 21 to 29 in the Assembly. The other parties in theruling coalition are NPP (4), LJP (1), Independent (1) and AITC (1).

"TheBJP has never respected the spirit of the alliance since the formation ofgovernment in 2017. There have been instances when their leaders have refusedto consider our members as alliance partners," he said, withoutelaborating.

TheBJP has however denied the allegation. The saffron party said that it hasextended all possible cooperation to its partners to ensure smooth functioningof the government.

Thisis noteworthy that NPF used to rule Nagaland but Neiphu Rio hijacked most ofthe leaders of the party he founded and formed the Nationalist DemocraticPeoples Party (NDPP). The NDPP with BJP formed the government in Nagaland andsidelined NPF from the Naga politics.