Non-Congress alliance in the offing

SHILLONG:  The non-Congress political parties in the state have initiated the exercise to have an alliance with like minded parties to take on Congress in the 2018 Assembly polls.
With the next Assembly polls just one and a half year away, there is renewed interest among the non- Congress political parties in the state to go for alliance following the experiment of  non- Congress political parties in Assam which came under one banner to oust the Congress from power .
“We are working on the pre-poll alliance and details in this regard will be worked  out in the due course of time,” NPP leader Conrad Sangma said.
According to Conrad, the non-Congress parties have the same mind and desire to have alliance to ensure victory in 2018 polls.
“We will try to talk to all like- minded parties to materialize the alliance”, NPP leader said.
Though the issue of pre poll alliance was not discussed in the meeting of North East Democratic Alliance, comprising non- congress political parties held in Guwahati on Wednesday, there is broad understanding among the political parties of respective states to take on the Congress before Assembly elections, sources said.
When contacted, UDP president Donkupar Roy said that the trend of political parties at the national as well as in states is to form coalitions.
UDP had supported NPP in the just concluded Lok Sabha by poll in Tura and even the party and NPP were partners in the coalition government under Meghalaya Progressive Alliance in 2008.
The UDP leader said that alliance is the need of the hour though any discussion related to 2018 Assembly polls   is yet to take place.
“At the moment, we will be concentrating on strengthening our base all over the state”, Roy said.