NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said on Saturday the verdict of the people of Meghalaya was “definitely against the Congress, the incumbent party for the past one and a half decades”.
Sangma, while addressing a gathering at the News18 Rising India Summit in New Delhi, said, “If you look at the results, out of the 59 seats, a majority of the seats have gone to non-Congress parties. The majority has gone against them.”
Referring to the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance, which has six allies including BJP, Sangma said it was a natural alliance.
“Meghalaya was looking for a change. It was natural for other parties to ally. When a coalition is being formed, discussions take place and we did talk to the Congress. But we had to keep the mandate in mind. When a coalition is formed, discussion does happen at different levels, but we have to keep people’s mandate and our ideologies in mind,” the chief minister said.
He also justified why he accepted the support from BJP. “The BJP is a development-oriented party. The aspect of development-oriented policy is something I appreciate,” he added.
At the same time, Sangma admitted that developing a hilly state had challenges at multiple levels. “… but we will work towards it. Roads, social welfare and youth are important. We have constraints and we are working
towards solving issues despite that.”
The youngest son of late Purno Agitok Sangma conceded that he learnt many things from his political lineage.
Talking about the seclusion of the region from the rest of the country, the chief minister agreed that the North East suffers less these days from what was described as the tyranny of distance from the mainland.
“India is a diverse nation. I studied in Delhi and have faced problems there. But I can tell you, with social media coming in, there is a lot of connecting with the North East. The new generation wants to connect to the North East. The current generation has a lot of connections. Going to North East is part of their bucket list today,” he added.
