NEW DELHI: Assam Minister and convener of the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), Himanta Biswa Sarma, on Friday ridiculed Rahul Gandhi saying four of his MLAs in Manipur joined BJP a day after the AICC vice president held a meeting with senior leaders from the region.
Gandhi held a meeting in New Delhi on Thursday to rejuvenate the North East Co-ordination Committee (NECCC) to take on the saffron brigade in the Assembly elections in three northeastern states including Meghalaya next year.
The switchover of four legislators came as an embarrassment for former Manipur chief minister Ibobi Singh, who is a member of NECCC.
Singh had claimed that the Congress would come back to power in the state and most of the MLAs who are now in BJP or supporting parties would come back to the Congress.
After successfully snatching power from the Congress in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, BJP is now aiming for Meghalaya.
NEDA is a counterpart of NECCC in the region.
Sarma, who is the minister of health and education in Assam, was present when the four Congress MLAs were inducted in BJP.
“The other day, Rahul Gandhi chaired a meeting with their leaders to strengthen the Congress party in Northeast and today four of their MLAs have joined BJP. We are working towards a Congress-mukt North East,” he said hinting that the party will lose Meghalaya and Mizoram in the next polls.
After the Manipur Assembly elections, Congress legislator T. Shyamkumar had switched over to BJP and was sworn in as a cabinet minister. Another MLA, Ginsuanhau Zou, soon followed him to join BJP.
Since then speculation has been rife about a dozen Congress lawmakers being in talks with the BJP leadership for a possible switchover. The Congress, which won 28 seats to emerge as the single largest party in the Manipur Assembly, failed to form the government as it fell short of the magic number of 31 by three seats.
Headed by Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, the Congress committee for North Eastern States includes former chief ministers of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, who met Gandhi in New Delhi on Thursday.
