The Naga People’s Front (NPF) seems to be lurching from one crisis to another.

On Thursday, NPF office-bearers of all frontal organisations of six Assembly constituencies and representatives of central and division offices announced their resignation en masse while party president Shürhozelie Liezietsu suspended 19 Mon division office-bearers from its primary and active membership with immediate effect.

The resignation of the office-bearers of six Assembly units came a day after seven central office-bearers resigned from the party.

Earlier, seven Assembly unit presidents of the NPF had resigned on May 3 to join the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) after the NPF suspended seven legislators last month.

In a letter to Liezietsu, office-bearers of 46, 47, 48, 49, 53 and 54 Assembly constituencies said the leaders of all frontal organisations of area, town, ward, village units and representatives of central and division offices held an emergency meeting following the suspension and filing of a disqualification petition against seven NPF legislators. The meeting discussed the imbroglio within the NPF and the facts and evidences of alleged anti-party activities by the MLAs.

The meeting said the party high command, without proper consultation at the grassroots levels and before declaration of the Lok Sabha poll results, had taken a “harsh decision” against the seven legislators simply “because they had declared their moral support to another regional party’s candidate in the April 11 parliamentary election as no NPF candidate was in the fray”.

In the letter, they said they can no longer be in the NPF “where decisions are taken by a few functionaries without considering future ramifications and are compelled to resign en masse from both active and primary membership of the party with immediate effect”.

The suspension order by Liezietsu to 19 Mon division office-bearers said it had been confirmed through confidential source/report that they had supported the NDPP

candidate, Tokheho Yepthomi, in the April 11 poll to the lone Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland, “which was totally against the collective decision of the party”.

The order also said they had also threatened to lock the NPF office during the joint meeting with central office-bearers in-charge of Mon, along with the legislature wing in-charge of Mon division, on May 2. “This is unbecoming on their part as a responsible party office-bearer and a total breach of party discipline,” it said.

The order also said “they had through their utterances ascertained their intention to destabilise the party and carry out anti-party activities rather than strengthening the party”.