Nagaland elections 2018: Congress will draw a blank in state, C P Joshi should quit, says PCC chief

Asked why the AICC has abandoned Nagaland as he describes it, Therie said, “I don’t know. Joshi would be the best person to answer. He has been in charge of the state for two-and-a-half years. He had visited the state only once, on January 15… And he said it is going to be blank. Nothing is going to happen. I think he is responsible because the Congress president goes by his advice.”

He added, “Our system is that we have in-charges and the Congress president goes by their advice. Joshi also should feel that he is responsible for the Congress’s Northeast failures because he is in charge. If he has any morals, he should step down as in-charge. He has failed in almost all states. In Meghalaya, I don’t know whether they will be able to sustain. He failed in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland… Tripura.”

Joshi did visit a Meghalaya couple of times. “Because there we are ruling. They can give him comfort,” Therie said. He said the high command woke up only after February 3 and claimed Rahul then entrusted Ahmed Patel “to take care of the situation”.

“Ahmed Patel has done whatever was possible in a very short time. Somehow he has been able to at least boost the morale to some extent. I think the AICC had not planned for the Northeast elections. Although we have cautioned them and given our project… in August, repeated in October, November, December and January. They had no plan. As if they were not aware that Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura are going to have elections,” he said. Therie said only a handful of people such as AICC secretary K Jayakumar, Pradyut Bordoloi and Captain Praveen Dawar camped in the state.

He said the ground situation in Nagaland was “so good” as the “Christian community were all out against the BJP and in favour of Congress ideologies and principles”. I can only say it was an opportunity lost in Nagaland,” he said.