Congress is lukewarm in Nagaland, no candidate to fight in 60 assembly seats, says state president K Therie

The Nagaland state Congress president said that the condition of Congress in the state is as 'lukewarm' and the party could not find candidates to fight in all 60 assembly seats.

Speaking exclusively to India Today NE, Congress leader K Therie said, "Our main agenda is for the Naga political solution which is one major priority of the state."

Claiming that Nagaland lacks infrastructure, the Congress leader said that the state is far behind the neighbouring states and needs a lot of changes including power supply and drinking water.

Replying to a question as to what went wrong with the Nagaland unit of Congress post-2003, the state president said, "We called a ceasefire agreement then there were ceasefire monitoring camps almost everywhere and thousands of weapons were left free following which Congress failed to come out to exercise our franchise and thought Congress is Nationalist."

Further, the Congress leader said that the party do not have candidates to fight for the 60 assembly seats.

Also Read: Nagaland: BJP manifesto failed to highlight Naga political issue and ENPO demand, says Congress leader Jairam Ramesh

"We are contesting in only 23 seats and honestly we do not have candidates...the concept of our villages who have lived in the boundary walls...that culture and customs, we are not able to synchronize with the democracy."

Further, the Congress leader claimed that village people believed in money and power and they do not believe in idealogy.

"What is secular idealogy and what is communal idealogy they do not understand...they don't know they are voting against their own faith," he said.

The Congress president said that despite having more than 80 per cent of literacy, it is very unfortunate that these qualified people are unable to control or make understand their villages.

The Congress leader claimed that the village people do not understand BJP or like their performance because of various factors that are against the likes of the ethnic values of the state.

Since 2015 no Congress legislators have been able to represent its constituency.

Speaking on the Naga political solution, the Congress president said, "The government of India has agreed with the negotiators into agreements, if the state government also takes resolution to implement the agreed solution, the government of India cannot stop but that resolution has never been moved by the chief minister or its committee members."

K Therie said that for Congress party needs secular, democratic democracy and other is communal idealogy, which the ruling government thinks to be Hindu nationalism, the Congress wants it to be a secular government.