Dimapur, Feb. 22: Barely a week before the elections to the 10th Nagaland Assembly, the Congress is under intense pressure, especially in Dimapur district, from the Opposition that is hell-bent on denying another cakewalk to chief minister S.C. Jamir.
To counter the Opposition’s forages into the district, the Congress staged a protest rally against the alleged threats to its candidates and abduction of party workers and supporters by underground elements.
In a memorandum to Dimapur deputy commissioner Sanjay Kumar, the party openly alleged that “the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) is misleading the people…and meddling in the poll process”.
However, Nagaland minister for planning and urban development and the Congress candidate for Dimapur-II constituency, S. Imtisungit Jamir, waived aside the pressure element. He said the threats and pressure would not stop the party from retaining power.
Kanito, legislator from Ghaspani-I, turned the heat on the Nagaland People’s Front, alleging that the party had sought the help of the NSCN (I-M) in the polls.
“They (the NSCN-IM cadre) are moving around with arms and intimidating Congress party workers and supporters,” PCC working president, Hokheto Sumi, had earlier said in a statement.
The air was heavy with poll intrigue and drama at three common platform meetings organised by the Dimapur Naga Students’ Union for the candidates of Dimapur I, II and III Assembly constituencies.
The Dimapur-I phase went off well with BJP candidate and veteran politician Hokishe Sema hogging the limelight. Sema’s supporters are on a high as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Union shipping minister and Bollywood actor Shatrughan Sinha are expected to campaign for him.
Dimapur-II turned sour with Congress candidate Imtisungit Jamir getting the verbal stick from NPF supporters. He looked harassed after answering scathing questions for an hour on the Congress rule in the state.
Dimapur-III is tense over the killing of a youth in clashes between supporters of Nationalist Democratic Movement candidate K. Hollohon and NPF aspirant Azheto Zhimomi.
Voter’s slip: The political parties were apprehensive about the efficacy of the voter’s slip in the state, introduced for the first time by the Election Commission in the Northeast after its success in Jammu and Kashmir.
Several parties alleged that the Assembly polls on Wednesday would not be free and fair because bundles of voter’s slips have either not been distributed or has landed in the wrong hands through various means, which would deprive the genuine voters of their right to vote.
They alleged at an all-party standing committee meeting here yesterday that many such slips have been snatched away by antisocial elements. Election officials at the meeting also admitted that “some elements” had collected the slips from many families, intimidating them about an alleged militant order seeking return of the documents.
Dimapur deputy commissioner Sanjay Kumar, who convened the meeting, clarified that the district administration has yet to receive 2,750 voter’s slips from the Election Commission.
Kumar, who is also the returning officer for the district, claimed that the gaonburahs (village chiefs) and the village councils have been entrusted with the job of distributing the documents. However, they have failed to complete the work, he added.
He assured the gathering that anyone caught with an unauthorised slip would be arrested.