Kohima, Sep 16 (IANS) BJP President J.P. Nadda, who was on a two-day visit to Nagaland to gear up the party for next year’s Assembly elections, held a series of meetings with the state BJP leaders and its allies, besides visiting a church here on Friday.
Accompanied by state BJP President Temjen Imna Along and MP Phangnon Konyak, Nadda visited the Mary Help of Christians Cathedral in Kohima and requested the clergymen to plant saplings.
Nagaland being a Christian-majority state, the 16 feet high carved wood crucifix of the church, established in 1989, has one of Asia’s largest crosses.
“It has been a great opportunity to visit the Cathedral. Really impressed with the arrangements for worship of God,” the BJP leader wrote in the visitors’ book of the cathedral.
Nadda then attended the all-important BJP core committee meeting and addressed the party functionaries of Nagaland.
He also chaired a meeting of BJP legislators and took part in a combined meeting of the leaders of BJP and its ally Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP).
With 42 legislators, the NDPP leads the opposition-less Nagaland government where the BJP with 12 members has been a junior partner since 2018.
The deliberations of the meetings were not yet disclosed by the state party leaders.
Nadda also took part in a special cultural show hosted by Chief Minister and one of NDPP’s top leaders, Neiphiu Rio.
The BJP President then flew to Dimapur, Nagalnd’s main commercial city, where he along with Deputy Chief Minister Yanthungo Patton and Temjen Imna Along led a colourful road show arranged by many well-decorated auto-rickshaws.
The road show ended at a resort in the Chumoukedima area, where Nadda attended a meeting of intellectuals and professionals from the state.
Though the solution to the Naga political issue is the top most topic in Nagaland and the state government and all political parties have been demanding to resolve the decades old issue before the elections next year, the BJP leader did not talk much on the all important issue.
While addressing a public rally at Old Riphyim in Wokha district on Thursday, Nadda had said that since 2015, work is going on to resolve the Naga political issue, just like the various accords signed in other northeastern states.
The BJP President had said: “There are certain issues of the Naga political talks. We are working on those. Peace accords were signed with militant outfits in Assam and Tripura. We are going to solve the Assam-Meghalaya border issue.”
–IANS
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