SHILLONG: After United Democratic Party and National People’s Party, the State BJP, a partner in the MDA Government, has now came forward and claimed that the party has already received feelers from some of the opposition Congress MLAs to merge with the BJP.
State BJP Legislature Party leader AL Hek on Thursday said, “Not just feelers, few of them have met me also but it is not easy to get the numbers to avoid defection”.
Hek, however, made it clear that the party is concerned about the anti-defection law as the Congress MLAs should get the required numbers otherwise they will be attracting the provisions of anti defection law.
“Nobody wants to take the risk of attracting the anti-defection law,” he added.
The statement comes from BJP at a time when the opposition Congress is reduced to 19 MLAs in the House of sixty and the chances leading to the formation of a Congress -led government in the state is fast diminishing.
If 13 out of 19 Congress MLAs merge with BJP, this will be accepted as two-third of the actual strength is required for the merger.
Meanwhile, about the restructuring of the state BJP unit, Hek said the membership enrolment drive is going on in each and every constituency of the state.
To a question, he said it will be a normal activity for the party if the state president or the national president of the party is changed.
Asserting that the BJP is growing in strength in the state, Hek said, “In 2023, it will be a BJP-led government in Meghalaya”.
The BJP in the last Assembly elections won only 2 seats out of the 40 seats which it contested.