Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio and leader of the Opposition T.R. Zeliang on Thursday addressed a joint press meet on the Naga political issue with both expressing their desire to facilitate an early and inclusive solution.

However, the ruling NDPP and BJP office-bearers said the news meet did “not” go as planned.

The news meet was held on the “prodding” of Union home minister Amit Shah whom both Rio and Zeliang had met in Delhi on October 20 along with North East Democratic Alliance (Neda) convener and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma. Neda is a forum of non-Congress parties brought together by the BJP after the Assam Assembly polls in 2016.

Sources said Zeliang was expected to endorse the “one solution” resolution of the October 15 consultative meeting convened by the Rio-led state government and also to signal his return to the Joint Legislators’ Forum (JLF) on the Naga issue.

The Opposition NPF had left the JLF in August as the forum had “not” made any progress because of the “half-hearted” approach of the state government. After withdrawing from the forum, the NPF had constituted the Political Affairs Mission to facilitate the talks and since held talks with almost all leading groups, including the Naga National Political Groups and NSCN (Isak-Muivah).

The NPF had not attended the consultative meeting.

The Centre is keen on arriving at “one” solution to the decades-old Naga political issue but there has not been much progress after NSCN (I-M) made it clear that it would not budge from its separate flag and constitution demand. The NNPGs, which comprise seven outfits, are ready to sign the final solution with the Centre which is stressing on only “one” solution.

BJP national spokesperson Mmhonlumo Kikon told The Telegraph that the focus of the Nagaland government has been to rally all stakeholders around the “one solution” resolution and the October 15 consultative meeting attested to that.

According to Zeliang’s interview with a news portal a week ago, he supported the resolutions adopted at the consultative meeting and mentioned his meeting with Shah in the presence of Rio and Sarma in Delhi where he was asked to join the JLF and work together, Kikon said.

“In the joint press conference, he (Zeliang) failed to mention his support to the resolution and instead gave the reasons why the NPF had left the JLF. As stated in the resolution of the PDA meeting held on Thursday, it is clear that his (Zeliang’s) letter to the chief minister dated November 2 is not in consonance with his assurances to the Union home minister,” Kikon said.

The ruling PDA (People’s Democratic Alliance) government’s resolution on Thursday congratulated the successful conduct of the October 15 consultative meeting and the seven-point resolutions adopted, including “one solution” to the Naga issue.

The PDA meeting also deliberated on Zeliang’s proposal to Rio in a November 2 letter and said that the JLF since its formation in 2009 has been successfully playing the role of an active facilitator in the peace process and therefore there is “no requirement to discontinue with the JLF at this crucial and late juncture”.

In his letter to Rio, Zeliang had wanted the JLF nomenclature changed to Parliamentary Forum of Nagaland with Rio as chairman and leaders of the NPF and the BJP as co-chairmen, wherein all 60 MLAs and two MPs from the state will be members. Zeliang had also proposed holding of a special two-day Assembly session on the Naga political issue at the earliest and adopt a necessary unanimous resolution.

Zeliang had also mentioned of the meeting with Shah and about a subsequent NPF unanimous resolution to “give our cooperation to work together under one umbrella vis-à-vis the Naga political issue to facilitate an early settlement”.

Thursday’s PDA resolution, however, reiterated the appeal of the Government of India, through home minister Shah, to the NPF to rejoin the JLF and also to “endorse” the resolutions of the October 15 consultative meeting, which was conveyed to Zeliang on October 20 in New Delhi in the presence of Rio and Sarma.

Sources said that Rio and Zeliang coming together is a positive development but Delhi has some more work to do on this joint forum to achieve the desired result.