Took our help to form Govt : UKLF chief

GUWAHATI, Jun 13
In a shocking allegation, the Chairman of a Kuki militant outfit alleged in a letter to the Home Minister, Amit Shah that his organisation and another Kuki group rendered help to BJP candidates in winning Assembly elections. He alleged that an agreement was made with Ram Madhav and Assam CM, Himanta Biswa Sarma. He also alleged that they rendered help to the BJP even in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, as reported by India Today North East.
Senior Congress leader, Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet, “This is explosive. What has long been believed is now proven in black and white. It reinforces what I have been saying all along: Manipur is burning today because of the politics of the RSS/BJP.”
Manipur has been englufed in ethnic strife between Kuki and Meitei communities since May 3rd, 2023, which has claimed the lives of more than 100 people and thousands have left their homes. The BJP Government has put the blame for violence on Kuki insurgent groups, especially those which have signed the Suspension of Operation (SoO) pact with the Central and State Government.
But a 2019 letter to Amit Shah by Chairman SS Haokip of United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF), a Kuki outfit under the SoO has come to light, which makes huge claims of helping two BJP leaders in 2017 to win Assembly elections, Ram Madhav and Himanta Biswa Sarma, who managed BJP’s presence in the North-Eastern States then.
BJP formed a Government in the North Eastern State for the first time in 2017 and made N Biren Singh Manipur’s CM who belongs to the Meitei community.
The letter was attached to the affidavit filed by Haokip of UKLF in an NIA Court on June 8, 2023 which read, “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 instal 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.”
Haokip is an accused in a case of illegal arms purchase from former Congress MLA Yamthong Haokip, but he alleges that he had been falsely implicated in this case even after returning the illegally procured arms.
The Kuki rebel leader cited the favours he had done to the saffron party in the past, in his appeal to the Union Home Minister seeking reprieve in the case, reported India Today NE.
BJP leader Ram Madhav however, denied the allegation and denied meeting Haokip at all and hence ruled out the question of help.
India Today NE