BJP can’t take M’laya like Manipur: Mukul

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said on Monday Meghalaya would not be like nearby Manipur or faraway Goa in the 2018 Assembly elections and the Congress would come back to power.
Addressing media persons at an event in New Delhi, Sangma said, “Politicians, including those from BJP, are lining up because they think that maybe something like what happened in Manipur and Goa will be repeated there. It is not going to happen in Meghalaya.”
In Manipur, BJP wrested power from the Congress and in Goa, the BJP-led collation repeated another term despite thin margin of seats.
A number of legislators, including former Cabinet ministers, will quit the Congress before the polls next year allegedly for Sangma’s dictatorial leadership.
When pointed out that NEDA, a BJP-led coalition of northeastern political parties, was confident of coming to power in the state, Sangma said the saffron party “does not have an agenda except that of RSS”.
He added that it was his job to tell people that NEDA was an agent of RSS whose agenda was to destroy the nation. “It is one of the reasons that there can be no progress and prosperity (in the country).”
Sangma also referred to the Meghalaya Assembly unanimously passing a resolution in June opposing the Centre’s notification on banning sale and purchase of cattle at animal markets for slaughter. The assembly also demanded for its withdrawal as it would “impact the economy of the state and the food habits of its people”.