SHILLONG: The CLP leader and former chief minister Mukul Sangma, while admitting the role of Congress in defeating the NPP candidate MM Danggo in the recent by-poll, said this will be deterrence for anyone from the Congress to move to NPP.
According to Sangma, five to six Congress MLAs were in touch with NPP and they also informed the party about this.
“We knew their (NPP) plan and we also had interactions with our MLAs whom they were planning to poach,” Sangma said on Sunday.
He said the lesson from Ranikor by-poll is that the Congress will ensure that its MLAs are intact.
Sangma said the message is clear and the defeat of the NPP candidate is to prevent future defections.
“In Ranikor by-poll, we want to send a strong message to the turncoats and the parties like BJP and its close ally that attempt to poach members will be resisted by the party,” Sangma said.
He said as far as South Tura seat is concerned, the Congress had never won the seat in the last 25 years.
To a question on any efforts to form a Congress-led government in the state, both AICC leader Luizinho Faliero and the CLP leader said the Congress does not want to disturb MDA’s honeymoon period.
“We believe in Ten Commandments — though shall not steal or rob and we do not want to rob somebody’s government,” Faliero said.
Answering a query on the passivity of state Congress leaders after the NPP-led MDA formed the government, Sangma said the strategy of the party cannot be revealed.
“We will be alert and at the moment, we are giving space for the new government to perform and time will come to scrutinise its achievements.”
BJP under flak
Both Faleiro and Sangma slammed the BJP for preventing the Congress to form governments in Manipur, Goa and Meghalaya despite the party emerging as the single largest.
According to Faleiro, the reason for the inability of the Congress to form the governments in these states was that the office of the Governor was misused to install non-Congress governments.
Sangma said the democratic system has been vitiated by the BJP and its associates. He said the BJP is desperately grabbing power to gain supremacy in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and the agenda is to amend the Constitution to suit its ideology which will be disastrous for the country.
