Nagaland Social Security and Welfare Minister Kihoto J Hollohon dismissed the claim of sacked Housing and Home Guards Minister E.T. Ezung that he was responsible for the latters’ termination from the council of ministers.Mr. Ezung was dropped from the four-month-old Neiphiu Rio Ministry and subsequently he centered his point of attack at Mr. Hollohon alleging that the latter had engineered a conspiracy to oust him.Ezung’s termination was a common dose and not based on any individuals’ interest, Mr. Hollohon said.

The Nationalalist Democratic Movement (NDM), the party to which Mr. Ezung belonged had been given enough time to join the alliance, but he did not bother to pay heed on this line, which was the main cause of his termination, the Minister said.

The Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) has decided to have ministers only from its alliance partners and NDM was not a partner of the coalition Government, he added.

When asked whether he was going to take any legal action against Mr. Ezung for dragging his name in the episode, the Minister ruled out any such intention."I am delighted to notice that he had blamed me out of frustration and let him go against me," Mr. Hollohon added.

The NDM had won five seats in the February 26 Assembly elections, but even before the formation of a new Government the party split with the defection of Mr Hollohon and Mr Kipili Sangtam who subsequently joined the Nagaland Peoples’ Front, the major constituent of the alliance.

The NDM now has three MLAs and Mr. Ezung was the lone representative of the party in the Ministry, representating Bhandari constituency where he had won in a six-cornered contest.

Meanwhile, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio said that Mr. Ezung was sacked because the NDM was not a part of the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland Government in the State. Ezung, who was elected to the State Assembly from  Bhandari constituency on NDM ticket, was sworn in as Cabinet minister, believing that he would join any of the four constituents of DAN, but he did not do so, the Chief Minister explained.

But Ezung ridiculed the Chief Minister’s decision, pointing out that he had been functioning as Cabinet minister for nearly four months since his induction as NDM party member and Rio could have dismissed him long ago.

 “I was sacked only to accommodate the Congress deserters,’’ he asserted. NDM president and former Chief Minister K. L. Chishi described the Chief Minister’s decision as ‘’unwise and immature’’.

Meanwhile, the BJP with its seven members in the 60-member house also expressed displeasure over the latest political development in the four-month-long DAN ministry. The DAN chairman and senior BJP leader, Hokishe Sema, said he was not consulted by the Chief Minister before deciding to drop Ezung. 

“All steps would be taken to strengthen DAN,’’ the former Chief Minister asserted.

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