SHILLONG: The Congress has claimed that there are intractable differences between NPP state president WR Kharlukhi and the party’s national president Conrad Sangma on the thorny issue of a post-poll tie-up with the BJP and other likeminded parties.
In a statement issued on Saturday, MPCC working president Vincent Pala turned the spotlight on Kharlukhi’s statement that the NPP will go solo after the polls, alleging it was a lie.
According to Pala, in past interviews Conrad had never ruled out the possibility of a post-poll alliance with the BJP or other likeminded regional parties.
“This proves that either Kharlukhi is lying or he and the party’s national president are not on the same page and there are differences between them,” Pala said.
According to the MPCC, it is evident that while Kharlukhi tries his level best to distance the NPP from the BJP, the party’s actions speak louder than words “as Kharlukhi either has differences of opinion with his national president Conrad or is clearly trying to hoodwink the people of Meghalaya into believing that the NPP is not hand in glove with the BJP”.
Pala pointed out that Kharlukhi does not have an answer to the question as to why the NPP sided with the BJP in Manipur and helped the saffron party form the government in that state when they obviously had “ideological differences with the BJP”.
“The NPP said the same thing in Manipur of going solo before the polls and we saw what happened after the polls and how the party behaved in an opportunistic manner throwing ‘ideological differences’ to the wind by striking an alliance with the BJP,” Pala said.
According to the Shillong MP, while Kharlukhi told the media that the NPP would prefer Nitish Kumar as Prime Minister instead of Narendra Modi, Conrad went all out to praise Modi and said the NDA government led by Modi was excellent.
“The Congress maintains that the people of the state are politically conscious and will not like to see their state handed out on a platter to communal forces by opportunist parties like the NPP,” Pala said.
