Secretary General of the Naga People’s Front (NPF), Achumbemo Kikon, on Wednesday said that the party workers at all levels are “prepared” to face the upcoming state Assembly election scheduled to be held on February 27.
‘The top priority of the NPF is the Naga political solution and still stands by it. Our stand is consistent, that there has to be a solution to the Naga political issue. But since the Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced the election schedule, the party is in a way bound to participate and we are prepared to participate,’ Kikon told Eastern Mirror at his office chamber in Kohima, just hours after the ECI announced the poll date for the state.
The party workers from the area unit to the state-level are all prepared to face the election, he added.
While expressing hope that the people will respond positively (to the party), the secretary general reminded that the NPF is one of the oldest regional political parties in the Northeast.
“We are aware that people love this party, especially the people of Nagaland. Therefore, they will definitely support us and we are hoping for a good result,” said Kikon.
When asked if the party would go for an alliance, he replied that they have not thought of forming an alliance with any political party at the moment but ‘will definitely have some kind of pre-poll understanding with some like-minded parties that share similar ideologies, problems, and policies’.
On this, he said the party leadership will take a call.
In the meantime, he asserted that ‘the NPF has stood its ground and has been standing on its own feet for the past 60 years’. ‘We have survived thus far,’ he noted.
On whether the party will field its candidate in all the 60 seats, he said they have aspiring candidates from almost all the assembly constituencies seeking NPF tickets but the party will take a call after examining the candidates.
‘Tickets are normally screened through various levels. This is followed by the Working Committee sitting on the ticket aspirants before taking a decision,’ he added.
NPF aspires to contest in all the 60 seats but a political party also has to be practical in its approach, he said, adding that at the moment, he had no concrete answer on the number of seats it will contest.
‘The party leadership will take a decision on whether to contest all the 60 seats or leave out some and contest according to the feedback received from the grassroots,’ he concluded.