GUWAHATI: A few days after an important portfolio was taken away from him, Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister Yanthungo Patton has turned down Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio’s offer to take additional responsibility. The development triggered speculations that the BJP leader felt Rio was trying to clip his wings. Patton has for long been aspiring to be the CM, political observers said.
Rio, who is a leader of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), had taken away the portfolio of roads and bridges and offered land resources to Patton. “…with a deep sense of regret, it is to inform you that I have to gracefully…refuse to accept the new allotment of portfolio given to me…as I stand contended working together even without this additional assignment,” Patton wrote to Rio on Monday.
He asserted that a fellow BJP legislator, who was holding the portfolio of land resources, was discharging his duties and responsibilities diligently with no adverse record. “I have the confidence in him as the BJP leader.” Patton assured that he and all the BJP legislators would stand firm to the pre-poll alliance commitments with the NDPP and continue to work in the interest of the coalition government and the welfare of the people.
Later, BJP’s Nagaland unit chief Temjen Imna Along appreciated Patton for his “benign decision” to decline the land resources portfolio. Leaders of the NDPP and the BJP, including a minister, told this correspondent that it was the chief minister’s prerogative to decide who gets what responsibilities. Some of the leaders said Rio took the decision possibly in consultations with the BJP’s central leaders when he and Patton were in Delhi recently during which they met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Game of chess
In 2021, Rio had accommodated the opposition Naga People’s Front (NPF) in the United Democratic Alliance government after being “threatened” by Patton’s growing proximity to the NPF. The BJP and the NPF together have enough MLAs to form a coalition government. There is a talk that Rio might try to form a government of regional parties when Nagaland goes to polls next year