SHILLONG: “I hope the Centre too follows the Meghalaya pattern and the Congress and BJP come together to form the government at the Centre”.
That was State NPP president WR Kharlukhi speaking on Thursday.
Anguish and exasperation have perhaps never run so deep in the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) or its more recent avatars in the Khasi Autonomous District Council and the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council – the United Democratic Party-led United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and the NPP-led Garo Hills Progressive Alliance (GHPA), respectively.
Two back-to-back setbacks that saw the two alliances losing power in the councils seem to have left the hitherto smooth-sailing MDA shell-shocked.
The NPP is anguished over some of its MDCs and another from the BJP supporting the Congress candidate in the election to the deputy chairman’s post in the GHADC ensuring his victory on Wednesday.
The BJP is a constituent of the MDA along with NPP and UDP besides others.
“We have not decided yet, but I being a member of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) will surely raise this issue as on one hand the BJP talks about Congress-mukt Bharat and on the other, their MDCs side with Congress”, he said.
The NEDA is a conglomerate of parties in the North East that are allies of the NDA at the Centre.
Kharlukhi said, “I hope the Centre too follows the Meghalaya pattern and the Congress and BJP come together to form the government at the Centre”.
Reiterating what he said on Wednesday, he said the governor’s rejection of administrator’s rule in KHADC has resulted in instability.
“The ruling and the opposition were tied at 14 votes each and the chairman had to give his vote… there is no question of stability”.
He was referring to the ruling alliance’s debacle in the KHADC during the vote on the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition Congress on November 20.
Reacting to the claim of expelled NPP MDC PN Syiem that he was not involved in any anti-party activity but only followed laid down rules, Kharlukhi said, “It is not for rule or anything. His rule is his own and he was expelled for going against the decision of the party to work together with UDP, PDF and HSPDP in the district council just as we do in the state”.
Kharlukhi said Syiem as an NPP MDC was part of the agreement to form the United Democratic Alliance in the KHADC.
“He himself was instrumental in throwing out the UDA executive committee when he was still an NPP MDC and the NPP as a party had signed the agreement that we should all work together in the council as we work in the state”, Kharlukhi said.
“PN Syiem was suspended by the Congress, the PDF that he formed left him and on a cold morning of 2018, NPP took him and made him the MDC and the chairman of the council and now when he is warm he bit the party,” he added.
