Kohima, Feb. 10: Nagaland CLP leader Tokheho Yepthomi has urged people to be part of the change that the Congress can usher in if voted to power.
Yepthomi, contesting from the Dimapur III constituency against Naga People’s Front (NPF) candidate and sitting MLA Azheto Zhimomi and NCP’s I. Yezhekhu Sumi, said only the Congress could bring change in the state.
Stating that the ruling Naga People’s Front (NPF) had siphoned off crores of public money meant for development projects, he asked people to vote for the Congress and see the change.
“If Nagaland has become ‘a forgotten part of the country’, it is the NPF-led DAN government’s doing. Their indulgence to rampant corruption, unabated embezzlement and amassing personal coffers with scant regard to any established norms of financial propriety and complete abdication of rule of laws have been their undoing,” Yepthomi said.
A businessman-turned-politician, Yepthomi said NPF ministers and MLAs had become contractors with the sole purpose of pocketing public money. He said it was up to the people to choose between a business party and a party that would work for the welfare of the people.
He said NPF would vanish along with chief minister Neiphiu Rio if they lost this election.
Born on the October 12, 1952, Yepthomi ran for office in the 1993 state general election from Aghunato Assembly constituency in Zunheboto district on a Congress ticket. He resigned from the party in June 2003, joined the NPF and was appointed minister for roads and bridges. He rejoined the Congress just ahead of the 2008 Assembly polls.
He said he had decided to contest from Dimapur III this time as the people wanted him to contest.
People from his constituency, however, said he had to shift because his position was fragile.
His father-in-law, Kihoto Hollohon, had won from Dimapur III as an Independent candidate in 2003.
Dimapur III has 27,637 voters — 14,076 men and 13,561 women. It has a mixed population, including Nagas and non-Nagas.
The Congress leader said he did not want to make any promises to the people but was committed to work for all-round development of the state. “The NPF have no more lies to fool the people nor do they have any issue of public importance to bank upon in this election.”
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