Guwahati, May 12 : Congress candidates have not been able to file their nominations for the Autonomous District Council (ADC) polls scheduled for June 1 because of militant threat resulting in growing frustration and anger among MLAs and party functionaries, especially in the key districts of Senapati and Churachandpur.
As of now only four candidates have been able to file their nominations for the 24-seat Naga-dominated Senapati ADC. Sources said the NSCN (IM) is threatening the candidates and the state government has not reacted. Rural development minister Francis Ngajokpa has also chosen to remain silent. In Churachandpur, only seven could file their nominations for the 24-seat ADC. Here, militants belonging to the Kuki-Chin groups are threatening them despite the fact that one of the senior most cabinet ministers, Phungzathang Tonsing, is from this district.
BJP has fielded the maximum number of candidates (121) for Ukhrul, Senapati, Sadar Hills, Tamenglong, Chandel and Churachandpur. Congress comes a close second with 97, the Naga Peoples' Front with 86, independent 237 and 14 others.
Senior Congress leaders confirmed the militant threats but also wondered how the government could conduct the last election in 2010, held after 23 years, when the NSCN (IM) was in an equally aggressive mood. Not a single candidate was allowed to file nominations in the Naga districts then. But, many Congressmen braved the threats and emerged victorious in all the six ADCs.
"Congressmen were beaten up by the militants in the Naga areas and houses were burned down. A candidate was killed in Ukhrul. The then hills affairs minister DD Thaisii's house was set on fire in Senapati town, but we won the election," said a tribal Congress leader.
He feels the state government is to blame for the party's present plight as it had failed to give more power to the councils in the last five years. "We cannot convince people in the hills to vote for us as we haven't done anything. The present crisis is the party's own doing; its poor management of the district bodies. Militant threat comes later," he added.