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Imchalemba
Imchalemba
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
	In office; 1991-1998
Preceded by	Shikiho Sema
Succeeded by	K. Asungba Sangtam
Constituency	Nagaland
Personal details
Born	18 June 1939; Jorhat, Assam, British India
Political party	Indian National Congress
Other political; affiliations	Nagaland People's Council
Spouse	Bendangmongla
Children	a daughter and a son
Parent	Reverend Longri
Residence	Dimapur
	Source: [1]

Imchalemba (born 18 June 1939) is an Indian politician from Nagaland. He was elected as the Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha twice, representing the state in the 10th Lok Sabha and 11th Lok Sabha.^[1]^[2]^[3] He was also the founding editor of the defunct newspaper, Nagaland Times.

Political Life

On 30 April 1970, the Nagaland Nationalist Organisation (NNO) wrote a memorandum to the Central government seeking the integration of contiguous Naga areas of Assam, Manipur, and North-East Frontier Agency into the Nagaland state. Reverend Savino and Imchalemba in their respective capacities of President and General Secretary of the NNO also signed this memorandum. It also demanded that the portfolio of law and order be transferred from the state governor to the state government.^[4]

In June 1980, Imchalemba, the incumbent Agriculture Minister in the Nagaland state government, and Tekuyaba from the Naga National Democratic Party tabled a resolution in the state assembly asking for the removal of the incumbent deputy speaker of the house, Rainbow Ezung. Ezung submitted his resignation on 21 June 1980 denying charges of being partisan.^[5]

Member of Parliament

After a brief stint as the minister in the Nagaland state government, Imchalemba filed his nomination for the Nagaland seat in the 1991 Indian general election on the Nagaland People's Council (NPC) ticket. His opponents were the sitting MP, Shikiho Sema from the Indian National Congress (Congress), and Pius Lotha from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This was the first time that the BJP was contesting the parliamentary election from the state. Both the Congress and NPC criticised the BJP for introducing communal politics in the state. However, Lotha denied that his party was a communal party.^[6] The ban on the National Socialist Council of Nagaland on 28 November 1990 became a key issue in the elections. Both Congress and the NPC traded charges against each other as influencing the Vishwanath Pratap Singh's government towards the ban.^[6] All parties in Nagaland had registered their protest towards the ban. In addition, the Nagaland state assembly passed a unanimous resolution calling for immediate lifting of the ban.^[6] After a delay in announcing the results due to technical reasons,^[7] Imchalemba was announced victorious.

In August 1991, non-Congress MPs from Northeast India joined hands to urge the then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao to initiate steps for an early solution to the pressing economic and political problems in the region, including holding dialogue with the United Liberation Front of Asom. They reiterated that military intervention would not solve the emergence of insurgent groups in the region. Imchalemba joined this moved initiated by Jayanta Rongpi.^[8]

On 28 July 1992, Imchalemba joined the Congress which the NPC termed as a betrayal. Vizol Koso, the NPC President, said that he was unaware of Imchalemba's plans and was not consulted on the matter.^[9]

References

^ G. C. Malhotra (2005). Anti-defection Law in India and the Commonwealth. [Published for] Lok Sabha Secretariat [by] Metropolitan Book Company. pp. 173–174. ISBN 9788120004061.
^ Lok Sabha Debates. Lok Sabha Secretariat. 1993. p. 149.
^ Proceedings of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly. Assembly Secretariat, Nagaland. 1980. p. 39.
^ PTI (1 May 1970). "Nagaland party plea". The Times of India. p. 4.
^ UNI (23 June 1980). "Deputy speaker of Nagaland quits". The Times of India. p. 5.
^ ^a ^b ^c Munshi, Debashish (2 May 1991). "Parties focus on NSCN ban". The Times of India. p. 12.
^ Munshi, Debashish (19 June 1991). "Setback for Cong. in N-E states". The Times of India. p. 7.
^ The Times of India News Service (1 September 1991). "Mystery surrounds Assam mediator". The Times of India. p. 8.
^ PTI (30 July 1992). "Nagaland MP's 'betrayal' flayed". The Times of India. p. 7.