SHILLONG, Jan 28: After a brief lull, the voice of dissidence against BJP state president Ernest Mawrie has been raised yet again with a section of party leaders venting their ire against the leader accusing him of resorting to compromise on the issue of corruption after being rewarded with a plum post by the NPP-led MDA Government.
Senior leaders from the dissident camp, on condition of anonymity, stated that the ongoing turmoil in the state BJP is turning serious and have sent an SOS to the central leadership to introspect and make necessary changes before it is too late.
The leaders said they need to be cautious about the way the BJP is being controlled by the NPP in Meghalaya.
They accused the NPP of making concerted attempts to silence the senior BJP leaders in Meghalaya in order to gain control over the party. They claimed that the NPP sees the BJP as its toughest challenge in Meghalaya since NPP leaders are aware of how the central leaders played a dominant role in the formation of the MDA in 2017 when NPP had only two MLAs in the state.
Speaking about the various allegations of corruption raised by the BJP leaders, the dissident leaders asked MDA Chairman and Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma to clarify on the charges to avoid any complications within the coalition in 2023.
“Our party leaders should make it clear to the CM that he, as the leader of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance, has not been able to clear the air on issues raised by our leaders. Instead of ensuring that the allegations made by the BJP president and others were addressed, he offered plum posts to our party leaders to silence them,” they said. The BJP dissidents also spoke about the need to launch a state-wide campaign to ensure that Ernest Mawrie’s action does not hamper the party’s prospect in Meghalaya since all the allegations against the government are still pending.
“We need to be clear on all such allegations. We cannot have an incumbent leader who resorts to compromise,” they said.
They said that the differences within the party need to be resolved at the earliest otherwise it would be difficult for the party to even retain the two seats which it had won in 2018.
“BJP Meghalaya has the potential to win more seats but not under the control of the NPP or under Mawrie’s leadership,” the dissident leaders said.