In a significant political development, senior politician and former President of Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC), K Therie has resigned from the Indian National Congress, accusing the party’s central leadership of violating long-standing agreements and eroding the autonomy of the NPCC.

In a strongly worded resignation letter addressed to the AICC President through Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, Therie alleged that the All India Congress Committee (AICC) had “backed out” of the historic 10-point modalities agreement that defined the relationship between the INC and the NPCC.

Tracing the political context, Therie recalled that Nagaland attained statehood in 1960 under the 16-Point Agreement, later embodied in Article 371 (A), which guarantees special constitutional protections to the state. He asserted that the NPCC’s association with the Congress was built on the understanding that Nagaland would remain “regional in content and national in outlook,” and would be supreme in the affairs of Nagaland, with its own Constitution and more.

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However, he claimed that recent actions by the party leadership have violated these foundational principles. Therie specifically objected to the “Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan” launched by AICC General Secretary (Organisation), KC Venugopal, terming it an encroachment on the constitutional functioning of the state unit.

Despite raising objections earlier this year, he said the AICC went ahead with the appointment of District Congress Committee (DCC) presidents on March 30, effectively overriding existing office bearers who were still in the middle of their elected terms.

Calling it a pattern rather than “singular incident”, Therie further alleged that six AICC members from Nagaland (out of 12 Seats allotted to NPCC since 1978), were removed without justification, despite being duly elected in 2022. He claimed the move was linked to internal disputes over financial transparency, including resistance by certain leaders to sign “blank” election expenditure documents.

“The sinister plan was to enable NPCC to remove Dr Bobby Pannikar, former Working President of NPCC and Treasurer, for refusing to sign a blank format of the State election expenditure statement (2023). The matter went up to AICC, wherein the AICC in-charges of Nagaland were found guilty of election fund embezzlement. AICC has protected the culprits, and the honest were punished,” Therie stated.

Describing the developments as a “breach of trust,” he said the actions of the party leadership were “unconstitutional and undemocratic,” making his continuation in the Congress untenable.