When contacted, Tokheho Yepthomi told this correspondent that as he did not contest the last Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) elections and the recently held 18th Lok Sabha elections, he decided to resign and “remain free”
By Imna Longchar, TFM Nagaland Correspondet
A veteran politician in the state of Nagaland, Tokheho Yepthomi, who was elected to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly for five terms from 1993 to 2018, and was also a former Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, on Thursday resigned from the primary and active membership of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP).
Tokheho Yepthomi put his resignation letter addressed to the NDPP president Chingwang Konyak, though not mentioning any reason about the same.
When contacted, Tokheho Yepthomi told this correspondent that as he did not contest the last Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) elections and the recently held 18th Lok Sabha elections, he decided to resign and “remain free” .
The former MP, Tokheho Yepthomi, had served as a cabinet minister for Transport and Communication, Public Health Engineering Department and Public Works Department from 1995 to 2008 under former Chief Ministers SC Jamir and Neiphiu Rio.
He served as the Congress Legislature Party Leader and Leader of Opposition in the state assembly from 2010 to 2015.
While in Opposition, he led a campaign for the dismissal of the then state Education Minister, Nyeiwang Konyak, who was allegedly involved in financial irregularities of Rs 5,000,000 in the department.
After joining the then newly formed Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), Yepthomi was selected as the consensus candidate for the People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) to contest by-election to the lone Lok Sabha seat from Nagaland in 2018.
The seat was vacated by Neiphiu Rio to become the Chief Minister of Nagaland.
He was again selected as the consensus candidate for the PDA in the 2019 general elections.
It may also be mentioned that in the month of May, 2020, the Lok Sabha speaker appointed Yepthomi as an associate member of the “Delimitation Commission” tasked with redrawing parliamentary and assembly constituencies for Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland.