The Janata Dal-United leadership has dissolved the Nagaland unit of the party after its lone MLA and state unit chief pledged support to the Neiphiu Rio-led coalition government.
“Our party’s Nagaland state president has given a letter of support to the chief minister there without consulting the central leadership of JD-U, which is high indiscipline and an arbitrary move. That is why JD-U has dissolved the state committee of the party in Nagaland with immediate effect,” JD-U national general secretary Afaq Ahmed Khan, who is in-charge of the party’s Northeast affairs, said in a statement.
Nagaland JD-U president Senchumo Lotha and party’s lone MLA Zwenga Seb met Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on March 8 and handed over letters of support to the NDPP-BJP coalition government.
Seb won the Tse Minyu seat in the recently concluded state elections.
JD(U) national president Rajeev Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh said the party came to know about the MLA’s move on Wednesday and took immediate action.
“We came to know about the letter of support by the lone JD-U MLA on Wednesday. This was done without our consent and prior notice. We have decided to dissolve the state unit immediately and will soon constitute a new committee.
The JD(U) president also targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party, accusing it of poaching its MLAs. “They had done the same in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur earlier,” he said.
Of the three Bihar-based parties JD(U), RJD and LJP(R) that contested the Nagaland Assembly elections, Chirag Paswan-led LJP(R) fared well and won two of the 16 seats.
JD(U), which had hoped to get the status of a national party on the basis of its performance in the North-East, could win only one of the seven seats.
The JD(U) has been contesting the Nagaland elections since 2003 when it fielded candidates for 13 out of 60 seats and won three with a vote share of 5.8%. In 2008 it contested three seats and lost all; In 2013, it contested three seats and won one. In the last elections in 2018, it fielded candidates in 14 seats and won one seat, with an overall vote share of 5.49%. This year it contested seven seats and won one seat with a vote share of 3.3%.
Defection from JDU in North East
September 2022
Five of the six Janata Dal (United) MLAs joined the ruling BJP in Manipur, days after the Nitish Kumar-led party parted ways with the saffron party in Bihar.
December 2020
In Arunachal Pradesh, six JD-U MLAs joined the BJP, reducing the party’s tally to just one in the 60-member assembly, while the BJP’s tally rose to 48.
