SHILLONG, Feb 11: The Bharatiya Janata Party in Meghalaya will not withdraw its support to the NPP-led MDA Government and has, instead, decided to write to Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma seeking clarification over the support of the five Congress MLAs to the coalition government.
“We will be writing to the CM by Monday to seek clarification on why we, as partners, were not officially informed of the inclusion of the Congress MLAs in the MDA Government,” BJP state president, Ernest Mawrie told reporters after a meeting of the party’s core committee on Friday.
Mawrie said that he has already sent his feedback to the central leaders in Delhi on the latest political development in the state.
Interestingly, BJP national vice president and Meghalaya in-charge, M Chuba Ao said the party has no problem with the Congress MLAs’ entry into the government since it is proof that they have accepted the ideologies and common minimum programme of the ruling coalition.
According to him, everything is possible in politics and anybody can join to government to strengthen it.
“As a partner in the government, we expect the CM to inform us officially about the Congress joining the government. The party is confused since we were not kept in the loop about this political development,” Ao said.
Asserting that the Congress is ready to accept the BJP ideology by joining the government, Ao said, “The five MLAs are aware that BJP is part of the government. Despite knowing this they came to support and work with us.”
“Congress is a divided house. First, it was the 12 MLAs who left the party led by Dr Mukul Sangma. Now the five MLAs cannot survive without the support of the MDA Government. As it has been witnessed, it is the support of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) without the approval of the party leadership,” he said.
Stating that the Congress is planning to suspend the five MLAs, the BJP leader said the five MLAs may now resign from the Congress and merge with any other political party.
“This would mean that there will be no more Congress in the State. The latest political development serves our agenda of wiping out the Congress. We are already targeting a Congress-mukt Meghalaya,” he said.
Besides Mawrie and Ao, the core committee meeting was also attended by party MLAs AL Hek and Sanbor Shullai, who holds a cabinet berth in the MDA Government.