SHILLONG: The National People’s Party (NPP) is non-committal about backing Narendra Modi as prime minister despite being part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance at the Centre.
Indicating this here on Monday, Deputy Chief Minister and NPP vice president, Prestone Tynsong told reporters that apart from Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi, there are six or seven national leaders who are fit to be prime minister of the country.
“Why are we talking only of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi to occupy the chair of the prime minister? There are six or seven national leaders who are fit to be the prime minister,” he said.
Asked about the non-committal stand of the NPP on Modi as prime minister despite being part of the NDA, he said that it is nothing strange since the party wants to wait for the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls on May 23.
Earlier NPP national vice president D D Lapang also did not choose comment much on the performance of Prime Minister Modi saying only that he has tried his best but nothing much can be said about his performance at the moment.
Stating that the present dispensation at Delhi will be replaced by a new dispensation after May 23, Tynsong said that the NPP is confident of winning at least three to four seats in the whole of North East.
“We are expecting to win the Tura seat, another seat from Manipur and at least two seats from Assam,” he said.
Lapang, however, expressed optimism that the MDA common candidate for Shillong, Jemino Mawthoh, will win.
He also said that that there will not be any difference with BJP contesting the elections from Shillong and Tura seat adding that there is no hard and fast rule that BJP should not contest the election being a constituent of the MDA.
Denying that it will be difficult for the NPP to defeat Congress in Shillong seat, which is considered a bastion of the latter, he said, “voting is secret and we feel that our candidate will win.”
Meanwhile, Tynsong informed that the NPP, UDP, PDF and HSPDP will be coming up with a common minimum programme (CMP) after the elections, adding the four parties have met and decided that the important issues which were reflected in the manifestos of the parties would be incorporated in the document.
“We could not finalise the CMP before Lok Sabha polls due to paucity of time,” Tynsong said.
Pointed out that the HSPDP is demanding a separate Khasi-Jaintia state, he said that the demand for separate Khasi-Jaintia and separate Garo state will remain only as a dream.
“It is impossible to create Khasi-Jaintia and separate Garo states with only two parliamentary constituencies. This will remain only as a dream,” he said.
He, however, added that he supports the demand of the HSPDP to have an ILP like mechanism to address the issue of influx and illegal immigration in the state.
