Guwahati: A large number of legislators of the ruling Naga Peoples Front (NPF) are challenging the leadership of Nagaland chief minister T.R. Zeliang.
The legislators are reluctant to go against the Nagaland Tribes Action Committee (NTAC), opposing the decision of the state government adopting Article 234(T) of the Constitution, which provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in local body elections. The NTAC represents tribal organisations in the state.
NPF sources said Mr Zeliang has started calling all the legislators to Kohima. He has sent Army helicopters to bring legislators stranded in their constituencies because of the indefinite strike enforced by the NTAC.
The BJP has decided to extend support to Mr Zeliang, but over 20 NPF legislators are in touch with former chief minister and member of Parliament Neiphu Rio.
Mr Rio, who was expelled from the NPF on charges of anti-party activities, has won the confidence of legislators, people familiar with the matter said.
Though BJP legislators were reluctant to go against the NTAC, sources told this newspaper that BJP general secretary Ram Madhav’s to support Mr Zeliang has silenced them.
Sources said the Naga civil society will defy constitutional obligations and directives to protect their customs and tradition. They said growing public support to the NTAC was compelling the legislators to go against the chief minister.
The NTAC has sought Mr Zeliang’s resignation and wants to nullifying the urban local body polls. Security sources in Kohima said there is visible panic in the state government.
On Saturday, shops, banks, and state and Central government offices remained closed.
The protest in Nagaland started after the state Assembly on November 24, 2016, revoked its earlier resolution of September 22, 2012, which proposed a wider consultation with the Naga civil society before adopting a Central legislation (Article 234T) giving 33 per cent reservation to women in local body elections.
Nagaland’s apex tribal bodies, which recently accepted a draft agreement signed between the Centre and the armed group Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), giving up the demand for “independence from India”, saw the Assembly’s move as an infringement on constitutional protection granted by Article 371A of the Constitution.
A key point of the draft agreement was that Nagas would end their decades-old demand for independence from India, but would have protection of their ‘sovereign’ rights.
The influential Naga Hoho, an apex body of various tribes, also considers Article 234(T) a Central legislation which infringes on tradition and customary laws of the state.
The Naga Hoho said there is already 25 per cent reservation for women in village development boards as mandated by Section 50 of the Nagaland Village and Area Council Act, 1978.
