Former minister Patton turns Lotus, once again

[caption id="attachment_159732" align="alignnone" width="550"] Former Home Minister of Nagaland, Yanthungo Patton (second from right) with BJP leaders on Tue. in Dimapur.[/caption] Eastern Mirror Desk Dimapur, Jan. 16: An Isolated former Home Minister of Nagaland, Yanthungo Patton on Tue. returned to his former party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in an event to mark the occasion held at Dimapur. A reliable source informed that Patton was ‘inducted’ into the party in the presence of BJP leader Ram Madhav, Himanta Biswas Sarma from Assam, and the state BJP president Visasolie Lhoungu. Patton had earlier resigned from the assembly on Jan. 10. This is the second occasion Patton will be joining the BJP. The former home minister was first elected to the assembly in 1998 through an Indian National Congress (INC) from 40 Bhandari Assembly Constituency. He lost the elections on the same INC ticket in 2003. He later joined the BJP and won the elections from 37- Tyui A/C in 2008 only to merge with the NPF party in 2009 along with his fellow party colleague and legislator MC Konyak. In 2013 he won the elections again on an NPF ticket from Tyui A/C with a big margin. The decision of former chief minister Neiphiu Rio to leave state politics came as a blessing for Patton and he was elevated as the second-in-command in the ministry of TR Zeliang in 2014 and was allotted the portfolio of Home. He served as the home minister till the latest reshuffle of the Zeliang ministry in December 2017 when he was dropped from the cabinet. However, it was only recently that Chubathung Odyuo was declared as the BJP’s ‘intending candidate’ from 37- Tyui A/C. The party even had an event on Tue. in Wokha where Chubathung Odyuo was projected as the BJP’s intending candidate. (Refer page 3) Odyuo was reported was as “calling upon the booth-level party workers to wake up from their slumbers and start unconditional work and serve the party to bring achievement. “He informed the party worker that BJP has wider scope for Nagaland where he stated that party gives every individual a priority and eradicate the VIP culture with EPI (Every One is Important) – admitting that the other political parties have failed the state – where he assured that through BJP the present government can only elevate and eradicate the problems in the state bringing their dream into reality.”