GUWAHATI: Assam chief minister and convenor of the Northeast Democratic Alliance (NEDA) Himanta Biswa Sarma has denied of allegedly making a deal with a Kuki militant outfit prior to the Manipur assembly elections in 2017.
“I deny these allegations. We (BJP) have denied these allegation in 2018 also. But people believe in what a militant had said, but not us. Believe us not them,” said NEDA convenor an Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.
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Notably, a 2019 letter by the leader of one of the Kuki outfits under SoO to union home minister Amit Shah, claimed that two BJP leaders — Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and Ram Madhav – had taken help of Kuki organizations to ensure the saffron party’s win the 2017 assembly elections in Manipur.
It may be mentioned here that the BJP stormed to power in Manipur for the first time in 2017.
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The letter was one of the annexures attached along with an affidavit filed by SS Haokip, chairman of the United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF), in an NIA court on June 8, 2023.
UKLF is one of the armed Kuki organisations under suspension of operations (SoO).
In the letter, according to the news report, the UKLF leader alleged that, in 2017, his organization and another Kuki outfit United People Front (UPF) got BJP candidates elected, as per an ‘agreement’ with Ram Madhav and Himanta Biswa Sarma.
“I took a very important role in the formation of BJP-led government in the state. To be very frank had these been not supported by us it would have been almost impossible to install the BJP-led government in the state. In the recently concluded parliamentary election, BJP candidate secured almost 80-90 per cent votes within the area of our operation,” read the letter.