Nagaland political crisis: Floor test to be held by 15 July as scheduled, clarifies governor's secretariat

The Nagaland governor’s secretariat on Wednesday said the news report that Governor PB Acharya had postponed the floor test of Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu in the Assembly was false. [caption id=“attachment_3297338” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Shurhozelie Liezietsu. NPF website[/caption] “The news report on governor issuing new directives to postpone the floor test and asking former chief minister TR Zeliang to submit a writ petition to speaker with at least 10 Opposition legislators to move the no-confidence motion … is false,” a Raj Bhavan spokesman said. “No such statement has been issued from the governor’s secretariat except an official statement wherein the governor asked Chief Minister Liezietsu to prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly by 15 July,” the official said. On 8 July, TR Zeliang , former chief minister of Nagaland wrote to the governor claiming to form the government. Zeliang told the government that he has the support of 41 MLAs which include 34 from NPF and seven independent MLAs. The letter also said that the dissident MLAs also demanded ouster of the chief minister. Significantly, out of the remaining MLAs only 14 belong to the ruling NPF while four of them are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — an ally to the ruling NPF — and have maintained strict neutrality during the present crisis. The 60-membered Nagaland Assembly does not have a single Opposition MLA. On 9 July, the chief minister suspended four of his ministers and 10 parliamentary secretaries alleging anti-party activities. Shurhozelie is slated to contest from the Northern Angami I Assembly constituency in the by-election to be held on 29 July since he is not an elected member of the Nagaland Assembly. He was elected by party MLAs only when Zeliang, the then chief minister, was forced to resign due to mass movement against his leadership among the public nearly six months ago. With inputs from agencies