Imphal, May 18: The Naga People’s Front, a partner in the BJP-led alliance in Manipur, on Saturday announced to withdraw support to the government. "We had a long meeting at NPF central office in Kohima and decided to withdraw support in principle from the BJP-led Manipur government," Achumbemo Kikon, NPF spokesperson, told news agency ANI.

Even though the NPF has pulled out, there is no threat to the government or the ruling coalition, which currently has 29 legislators in the House. The NPF has four MLAs in the 60-member Manipur Assembly. Eight of the 28 Congress MLAs, who had won the 2017 polls, defected to the BJP last year, taking its tally from 21 to 29 in the Assembly. The other parties in the ruling coalition are NPP (4), LJP (1), Independent (1) and AITC (1). Irom Sharmila, Manipur's 'Iron Lady', Gives Birth to Twins on Mother's Day.

The NPF convened a meeting of its leaders on Saturday to decide if it would continue to stay in the coalition or withdraw support. It contended that the BJP does not pay heed to its ideas and suggestions. "The BJP has never respected the spirit of the alliance since the formation of government in 2017. There have been instances when their leaders have refused to consider our members as alliance partners," NPF State unit chief Awangbou Newmai said.

The BJP rejected the allegations and said has extended all possible cooperation to its partners to ensure smooth functioning of the government. BJP spokesperson Ch. Bijoy also said that the NPF had maintained that it did not want any ministerial berth while joining the alliance, but now it had several demands. Of the four NPF MLAs in the Assembly, Loshii Dikho, who won from the Mao Assembly seat, is a Cabinet Minister.

"The allegations made by the NPF are baseless and unfounded. All possible cooperation has been extended to our coalition partners for the smooth functioning of the government," Bijoy added. (With PTI inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 18, 2019 08:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).