SHILLONG: Senior Congress leader Ronnie V Lyngdoh on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of deceiving people by promising to lift ban on coal mining within six months of coming to power.
Talking to journalists here on Thursday, the urban affairs minister said one of the BJP leaders was beguiling the electorate into believing that the ban would be off.
“Before 2014 elections, it (BJP) said it would create 2 crore jobs but on the contrary, unemployment is on the rise,” Lyngdoh said.
Senior BJP leader Nalin Kohli had recently blamed the state government for not being serious about the mining issue and said, “We are making the commitment and we will work towards that within a time span of six-eight months if voted to power in 2018. This is one of our agenda as we get closer to the election.”
Lyngdoh said the ban was imposed by the National Green Tribunal and BJP’s claims were for “electoral benefits”.
During a recent visit to the city, former Union minister Jairam Ramesh had said the Centre was trying to dissolve the Tribunal. Ramesh has petitioned in the Supreme Court against such move.
Affirming that the Congress will come back to power in Meghalaya in 2018, Lyngdoh said, “The party is not concerned if two independent MLAs join the saffron party since the Congress has the mandate of the people and they will continue to repose their faith in the Congress, especially because of the prevailing situation in the country.”
The minister said if the two independent MLAs join BJP, they would invite disqualification under the Tenth Schedule.
On being asked if BJP is a threat to the Congress in Meghalaya, Lyngdoh said BJP had claimed of winning maximum seats in the KHADC by-elections last year but they did not win even a single seat.
“In this Assembly election too, the results will be the same,” he said and added that the mandate of the people in Manipur was for the Congress but BJP snatched away the mandate and trampled upon the democratic convention which, according to him, is the biggest corruption.
