Infighting within the Nagaland BJP unit has resurfaced after the lull of a few months with nine of the 14 district unit presidents threatening to resign if the state unit chief Temjen Imna Along Longkumer was not removed by February-end.
In a letter to BJP national president J.P. Nadda on Friday, the nine district presidents have stated that “failure to urgently intervene into the crisis within BJP Nagaland by the end of February 2021 will compel us to put in our resignations from our posts even though we will remain loyal party karyakartas (workers) in the future too”.
The nine signatories represent Phek, Wokha, Aboi (organisational district), Peren, Mon, Noklak, Tuensang, Kohima and Kiphire districts.
A copy of the letter, accessed by The Telegraph, has also been marked to B.L. Santhosh, BJP national general secretary (organisation) and Nalin Kohli, party’s national spokesperson and in-charge of Nagaland.
The three paragraph letter was an “urgent reminder” to Nadda about the seven petitions the district presidents had submitted last year to the party leaders, including him, about the problems plaguing the state BJP unit.
The problem between the district presidents and Longkumer started after the latter removed the Phek unit chief on June 23 last year. Besides petitioning the leadership, they had last year even carried out a poster campaign in their districts seeking Longkumer’s removal.
Though Longkumer could not be contacted, sources close to him said they were surprised over the development, claiming everything appeared fine on the surface after Kohli had brokered peace between the two groups at Hotel Japfu in Kohima besides assuring to convey their problems to the central leadership. As part of the deal, Longkumer was told to rehabilitate the three district chiefs he had removed.
A BJP office-bearer told this newspaper that they have not heard from the central leadership after the cordial meeting with Kohli, a reason why they have revived their demand for the replacement of Longkumer in the greater interest of the state unit.
BJP is part of the ruling alliance in Nagaland led by the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party. Six of its 12 MLAs are ministers in the Neiphiu Rio-led council of ministers.
The nine district presidents had first petitioned Ram Madhav, the then BJP national general secretary on June 25, 2020, “for replacement/change” of Longkumer, who was re-elected as state unit chief in January last year.
Four petitions, dated July 19, August 20, August 28 and September 5, were then sent to Nadda to intervene and resolve the problems within the Nagaland BJP unit.
The district presidents had sent two more petitions, one each to Dilip Saikia, BJP national general secretary, on October 12 and to Kohli on December 3 with similar pleas.
They said all their petitions listed out the “arbitrary” functioning of Longkumer and “his henchmen who were resorting to undemocratic practices at all levels of our party organisation to cover up his mismanagement and failings which is bogging down the functioning of our party at the organisational level and damaging the good image of our party in the state as a whole”.
The nine district presidents also touched upon their plea for implementation of the “one man, one post” principle in Nagaland as Longkumer was also a minister with many important portfolios to look after and as such “cannot” provide time to party karyakartas from all levels.
They also reminded the national leadership of their warning about the BJP’s tally dropping to “single digit” from the 12 MLAs they have in the present 60-member Assembly, if the party were to face the state polls under Longkumer.
They claimed their warnings came true “to a degree” in the November 3 bypolls to Pungro constituency where the party finished a distant third, behind an Independent, adding that as loyal karyakartas, “rather than damage our party we are prepared to resign from our posts as we are, more than anything, concerned about the glorious image of our party”.
