Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has termed the allegations leveled by the UKLF that it helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2017 Manipur State Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha elections "baseless" and said that the party had no engagement with such elements.
The chief minister issued the clarification on Tuesday.
Recently, United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF) chairman Lhunkhoson Haokip alias Soson alias SS Haokip alleged in a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah in June 2019 that the armed organisation had agreed with two BJP leaders namely Ram Madhav and Himanta Biswa Sarma and the United People Front (UPF) to support the election and made candidate of BJP to win the Manipur Legislative Assembly election 2017.
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In the widely published news, which has raised concerns especially in the state of Manipur where there is an ongoing ethnic clash between the Meiteis (Meeteis) and Kukis, Haokip further alleged that his party even helped the BJP during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
In the letter, it was also mentioned that SS Haokip took a very important role in the formation of the BJP-led government in Manipur.
“I took a very important role in the formation of the 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,” SS Haokip stated.
In the clarification, Himanta Biswa Sarma mentioned that 25 armed groups of Kuki/Zomi/Hmar ethnic communities are under SoO in Manipur, signed in 2008 by the then Congress government.
The allegations mentioned in the social media post are written by a self-styled chairman of one of these groups who is under investigation for his involvement in the arms pilferage case from the Kote of 2nd Manipur Rifles in 2018, the Assam CM added.
The clarification statement also mentioned that the BJP government transferred the case to NIA for investigation, indicating its seriousness of the case. The involved persons were chargesheeted by the NIA, which negates any suspicion of any compromise as alleged in the appeal, he added.
It stated that the said appeal is a desperate attempt by an individual to save himself. Any insinuation of understanding with the said individual is baseless and devoid of merit, the Assam CM said.
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