Nagaland: Cong ‘design to destabilise’ region

Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma criticised the Congress-led Government at the Centre for recommending President’s Rule in Nagaland by dismissing an elected government less than two months ahead of the elections.

“The decision of the Union Cabinet recommending President’s Rule is nothing but a Congress design to destabilise the Northeast and rig the ensuing Assembly elections in Nagaland,” Sangma said in a press conference here on Thursday.

Sangma also described the move (to impose President’s Rule) in Nagaland as a prelude to scrapping the Anti-Defection Act. “There is ill motive behind the move. It is nothing but encouraging defection by by-passing the law,” he said.

Sangma, whose NCP is an ally of the Congress at the Centre, but both parties are at opposite poles in his home state Meghalaya, also complained that the Congress did not consult the Left parties and other allies in recommending Central rule in Nagaland.