Nalin Kohli prediction: Congress hits back at BJP
SHILLONG: After the senior BJP leader Nalin Kohli prediction that the Congress-led government in Meghalaya may not complete its full term, the Opposition parties have indicated that anything can happen in Meghalaya, while the Congress asked the BJP not to meddle in the affairs of the state.
The Shillong Times on Wednesday spoke with several leaders of both Congress and the Opposition to elicit their views on Kohli’s assertion that “Mukul Sangma-led Congress government may collapse under its own weight due to ‘non-performance’ and ‘internal bickering”
“Kohli should mind his own business and just by visiting Shillong for one day he cannot say that there has been no development in Meghalaya,” MPCC working president and Cabinet Minister Deborah Marak said.
According to Marak, it is the Congress which brought development to Meghalaya and even gave a separate state. “What is BJP’s contribution towards development of Meghalaya,” she asked.
Marak, however, downplayed the question on internal bickering within Congress by terming it as “rumour.”
On other hand, Opposition leader in the State Assembly Donkupar Roy said that it was very difficult to predict anything in Meghalaya politics.
“Infighting within Congress has been going on for a long time,” he said adding “there is a 50-50 chance as far as the survival of Mukul Sangma-led coalition government is concerned.”
“We are not interested in any political game,” he said.
On the other hand, NPP Chief Conrad Sangma asserted that there are differences within the Congress and it is clear that MLAs and party workers are unhappy with current dispensation.
“With the kind of situation going on in the country, rank and file and MLAs of the party may feel that time has come to quit Congress,” he said.
The BJP leader Kohli while asserting that things are not in good condition in Meghalaya Congress had made it clear that the BJP will have no role in toppling the Congress government in Meghalaya.
The statement of the BJP senior leader assumes significance as two Congress-led state Governments — Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh — had already been toppled.