Shillong, Feb. 3 (IANS): Meghalaya’ ruling Congress on Saturday dared the National People’s Party (NPP) to first sever ties with NDA government to prove to the state’s electorate that they are not a “proxy party” of the BJP.
“No matter how hard the NPP may try to explain their position, they cannot deny that they are an alliance partner of the BJP at the Centre, Manipur and Rajasthan,” state Urban Affairs Minister, Ronnie V. Lyngdoh told journalists in response to NPP President Wanwei Roy Kharlukhi’s statement hinting at a possibility of post-poll alliance with the Congress after the February 27 assembly polls.
“The Congress here is our opponent. When the need arises, we don’t rule out in future. But we are not working with anybody here because we are sure that this time we are getting an absolute majority and we are sure that we don’t have to work with anyone,” Kharlukhi told journalists.
However, the Congress leader termed NPP’s statement was to “fool” the people of Meghalaya.
“They are trying very hard to convey to the people of Meghalaya by saying that the NPP is fighting the BJP in the state. But the people of Meghalaya are intelligent and cannot be fooled by such false claims,” Lyngdoh said.
“If they are so serious, why don’t they sever ties with the BJP-led NDA and North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) instead of going overboard projecting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the next Prime Minister after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” he asked. “It is known to everybody that before BJP finally decided its candidates that they had called NPP leaders from Jaintia and Garo Hills to Guwahati and jointly got into an exercise on how to field and where to field candidates,” he said.
He also mocked the BJP for not being able to field candidates in all the 60 assembly constituencies.
