SHILLONG: BJP National Spokesperson and in-charge of the party affairs in Meghalaya Nalin Kohli on Saturday said the party has already identified several candidates in the State for the ensuing Assembly elections to be held next year.
Speaking to media persons here on Saturday, he said that the outcome of the election would be a surprise and there will be a buzz of activity in the party in the next two to three months.
“We will keep working with the mission that people of Meghalaya, as well as other parts of the country deserve development and as the developmental wave sweeps the nation, Meghalaya should not remain untouched by it,” he said.
Admitting that the attempt to project the BJP as a communal party will exist as long as the BJP exists, he, however, said that the people of India thought of the party otherwise.
“There has been lot of attempts to engineer false propaganda that BJP is anti-Christian but Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has clearly stated that those who lynch others in the name of cow protection are wrong and the respective states must deal with such incidents firmly,” Kohli said.
“We believe in Sabka Saath and Sabka Vikas. We do not distinguish between a Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Parsi, Jew or any other community,” he said.
When asked about the allegation that BJP is conniving with regional parties to make inroads into the State, he said, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, recently met a Chinese Ambassador and people can draw any conclusion out of it.
“If Mukul Sangma meets me somewhere and we shake hands it should not mean that we are in an alliance. Meeting is one thing and having an understanding is another,” he added.
Castigating the chief minister, he said that Sangma’s only aim was to remain in power.
“He has no understanding of how to facilitate development or to serve the people of Meghalaya and it is well reflected in the ground reality. There was no medical college in Tura till date. The roads in Mendipathar are in bad shape,” Kohli pointed out even as he questioned as to why there was no road in many Garo Hills areas and why bridges were still made of wood.
“The chief minister is responsible for all this,” he added.
Kohli is set to visit the State again in August when he would personally meet members of the Christian community.
He also added that the party had Catholic members in Goa and many Muslims as well in other parts of the country and they could always complain if there was an agenda against these two communities.
Informing that BJP North East in charge Ram Madhav is coming to Shillong next week, Kohli said the selection of candidates is a continuous process and party’s internal mechanism is on the job to identify potential candidates.
When asked about the accusation that RSS is the ground force of BJP, he said the chief minister of Meghalaya has nothing to showcase in terms of development and fulfillment of promises and hence was manufacturing accusations.
