Ex-NPF Doshehe shifts loyalty to BJP

September 14, 2022 32 Views No Comment

Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 14

A 3-time MLA, who also served as a Cabinet Minister in the DAN-II regime in Nagaland, Doshehe Y Sema has become the latest local big name politician to join the BJP. Doshehe was welcomed into the party fold at a programme organised at the BJP Dimapur district office on September 13. Three NPP workers, namely— Tohovi Achumi, Ruth Pochury and Yeshila also shifted loyalty to join the BJP. All three had previously held high ranking posts in the NPP.

State politicians flocking to the party in power at the Centre has been an observed phenomenon but Doshehe maintained that he was attracted to the BJP’s “noble call to nation building” under the leadership of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As opposed to being branded a communal party, he said that the BJP is open to any citizen of the country irrespective of caste and religion and whose sole ambition is for the overall development of India devoid of corruption.

He had first won in the 1998 elections as an Independent from Atoizu Assembly Constituency before turning to the Congress to win a second term in 2003. He left the Congress soon after to join the Neiphiu Rio-led NPF. He finished the term as an NPF MLA and went on to successfully get elected a third time in 2008 to eventually become the Minister for Power in the DAN II government.

While he was never linked to the BJP in an official role, he disclosed that his “affairs” with the party goes back to the late 1990s and early 2000s when he was offered a senior post in the state BJP setup but turned down the offer. Years later, in 2013, he said that BP Acharya, who went on to become Nagaland Governor, asked him to join the BJP. “However I could not join for one reason. The reason was the NPF call for like-minded MLAs coming together for the settlement of the Naga issue,” he said.

Finally, in May, this year, he said that he made the call to join following another request from Acharya. He said, “I came to the conclusion that BJP is the hope of the nation, northeast, and Nagaland and the BJP is the only hope through which we can settle the Indo-Naga political problem.”

He further claimed that resolving the Indo-Naga issue was the chief reason why he left the Congress in 2004 to join the NPF. However, he said that the NPF’s approach turned out to be not tenable. “Regional party is a small pond, national party is a big pond and thus, I have shifted to the bigger pond,” he quipped.

Later queried if he has intention to contest again, he said that it would depend on the BJP high command. “Now, I am not my own property. I belong to BJP high command. Let them take the decision.”

Source: https://morungexpress.com/ex-npf-doshehe-shifts-loyalty-to-bjp