New Delhi, Jan 11 (ANI/NNN): The Election Commission of India on Friday announced dates for assembly elections in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland.
Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath said the polls will be conducted in two phases.
Tripura will go to polls in the first phase on February 14, while polls in Meghalaya and Nagaland will be held in the second phase on February 23.
The votes will be counted in the three states on February 28.
In Meghalaya and Nagaland, nominations will have to be filed by February 6, the commission said.
The EC said that adequate security arrangement will be made in all three states and there will be special emphasis on expenditure control and paid news monitoring.
As the election campaigns shyly and coyly begin in Nagaland, the very principle and the motif of the Joint Legislature Forum (JLF) floated last year by the 60 legislators of Nagaland assembly seems to be on the wane.
JLF was formed for pressing the Central government to expedite the ongoing Indo-Naga peace process.
Meanwhile, any election campaign means the game of hitting hard the rivals as much as you can. This is the sole reason why the JLF is gradually cracking and drifting apart.
Meanwhile, the Naga People’s Party (NPF) has alleged today that the Congress has made every effort to hijack the agenda of the Naga issue without any sincerity in solving the problem but they have only ended up fooling themselves. “They should not take the intelligence of the people for granted by trying to confuse the people,” the NPF said in a press communique this evening.
Earlier, the NPF had accused former Nagaland chief minister and Congress party stalwart SC Jamir of hobnobbing with Manipur chief minister O Ibobi Singh. The NPF had called Ibobi Singh as one of the most bitter enemies of the Nagas.
The NPF’s comment was based on the case where SC Jamir and few other Congress leaders from Nagaland had come to Imphal recently and reportedly sought their support for the ensuing Nagaland assembly elections.
On Friday, SC Jamir in local newspapers clarified regarding their recent Manipur tour and said, “As members of the same Congress family, it was felt strongly by the delegation that the chief minister of Manipur should be apprised of the genuine feelings of all sections of the people involved in the ongoing political process and also that decades of political negotiation is on the threshold of final consummation in which the Manipur has to play its positive role.”
Meanwhile, in its lengthy media communique today, the NPF claims that the government of Nagaland has consistently been urging the negotiating parties of the Indo-Naga political dialogue, especially the Government of India, to expedite the peace process and bring about an early political settlement that is honorable and acceptable to the people. “Ever since 2003, the NPF has given the commitment that it is willing to step down and pave way for an alternative/interim arrangement .
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/tripura-nagaland-and-meghalaya-poll-schedules-announced/
