SHILLONG: NCP national general secretary, Praful Patel has accused the state Congress of not doing justice to two of its MLAs, Sanbor Shullai and Marthon Sangma.
While Sanbor has already deserted NCP and joined BJP, Marthon is likely to join Congress shortly.
Speaking to media persons here on Tuesday, the NCP leader said, “We don’t have any reason to be with the Congress as NCP did not get the respect which it deserved.”
Asserting that Congress did not consider NCP important, he revealed that former party MLA, Sanbor was asked to resign from the post of deputy speaker to be a minister.
“We were only in paper with them and Congress used us because they needed the numbers,” he said, while ruling out any sort of alliance with BJP.
He also said the two MLAs have done nothing for the growth of party in the state.
Patel also announced the names of six of the over 40 candidates the party will field in the Assembly elections.
The six candidates are ECB Bamon (Mowkaiaw), John D Sangma (Ranikor), Tyngshain Lapang (Mawhati), Ronaldson Dkhar (Nongthymmai), Predecessor Rumnong (Pynthorumkhrah) and Andrew Charles Gare (Mawshynrut). Patel told reporters that the party would contest 22 out of the 24 seats in Garo Hills and around 20 seats in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills region.
The NCP leader criticised the Congress-led state government for its “misgovernance, inability to resolve the border dispute with Assam and also over the coal mining issue.”
He attacked the state government over the failure of the Megha Health Insurance Scheme, saying the money could have been used for upgrading hospitals. Patel said Meghalaya has the worst roads and infrastructure in Northeast.
The former Union minister also lambasted BJP saying “it does not exist in people’s hearts due to its divisive policies”.
