JDU Nagaland demands action after PDA’s Lok Sabha debacle

Kohima: With the ruling People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) candidate losing the elections to the lone Lok Sabha seat for Nagaland, despite the combined endorsement of 60 legislators, the Janata Dal United (JDU) Nagaland today demanded “necessary actions” against those responsible for the “infamous defeat.”

In what could be considered a significant setback, when the results for the April 19 election were declared on June 5, Indian National Congress (INC) candidate S Supongmeren Jamir won the contest with a decisive margin of 50,984 votes over the nearest rival Dr Chumben Murry of the ruling NDPP-BJP-led PDA. The Independent candidate Hayithung Bill Lotha received 6232 votes.

Reacting to the results, the JDU Nagaland unit, in a Press Communiqué, expressed huge disheartenment over the meticulous analysis of the result sheet of the just-declared results. According to the party, the scores of the forty Assembly Constituencies (ACs) that went to voting suggested that the consensus PDA candidate from the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) won only in thirteen ACs, and the rest (27) went in favour of the INC.

Only four, including the Chief Minister, of the whole Cabinet Ministers, could win for the PDA candidate in their respective constituencies, it added.

Besides, only five of the numerous Advisors from the present dispensation could win for the PDA candidate, the JDU Nagaland highlighted.

Terming these outcomes a “big shame,” the party demanded that those “Ministers and Advisors who have been reduced to a minority in their own constituency must resign on moral grounds.” The Chief Minister must also review the results and take necessary actions on those “responsible for the historically infamous defeat of a ruling government’s sponsored candidate in the Lok Sabha election,” it added.

“Top ranks and file of NDPP and BJP should also resign on moral grounds,” it added. Further, the JDU Nagaland appealed to the Chief Minister to implement the coalition spirit in the State as per the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) principle at the Centre and accommodate the legislators of the different political parties who are part of the alliance at the Centre.