Kohima/ Dimapur, Jan. 28: In yet another jolt to Nagaland chief minister S.C. Jamir, senior Congress MLA and former minister T.A. Ngullie today quit the party and joined the BJP, apparently after being denied a Congress ticket for the February 26 Assembly elections.
Ngullie?s resignation followed a similar move by T. Chuba, minister for higher and technical education and land revenue in the Jamir Cabinet, on January 16. Home minister Neiphiu Rio had quit the party last year.
Ngullie, a former finance minister, is a sitting MLA from the 27 Tyui constituency. He said he felt free now that he had severed ties with the Congress and hoped to have a good stint with the BJP. ?I was serving the Congress as a bonded labourer,? he said and praised the BJP leaders in the state for accepting him into the party fold.
Unfazed by the spate of resignations, the Congress exuded confidence of returning to power ostensibly for the failure of the Opposition to keep its flock, the Nagaland Democratic Alliance, led by the BJP, together.
As the countdown begins for declaration of candidature, the Opposition parties appear unable to work out a seat-sharing mechanism, thereby throwing cold water on their hopes of keeping their votes from splintering.
?Personal ambition has come in the way of such hopes,? a source in the BJP said. He said the Nagaland BJP submitted its list of candidates to BJP national vice-president Pyarelal Khandelwal yesterday.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Khandelwal said, ?The BJP national election committee will release the names of candidates tomorrow.? He said a joint meeting of the BJP and NPF leaders was held at Dimapur on Monday which decided to chalk out a common minimum programme for the alliance.