It’s more than evident that the BJP in Meghalaya is a divided house. The Party seems to suffer from a serious default response. One day the BJP in charge of Meghalaya, Chuba Ao says the Party will send in the CBI and ED to check out the scams and that the Party will quit the MDA Government in a month. The next day the capricious MLA of Shillong South constituency who has always been a law unto himself says, ‘nothing doing’ ‘no pulling out of the MDA.’ The BJP State President, Ernest Mawrie makes it worse by now stating that there is no scam under the MDA Government. That’s no surprise because he is a candidate for the 2023 elections and therefore wants to present the BJP as a holier than thou Party that had no part in the scams that surfaced from time to time. But is that even believable unless the BJP thinks the people of Meghalaya gullible?
It is learnt that in July this year the State BJP in their meeting had decided to pull out of the MDA to cleanse itself of the taint and anti-incumbency of the MDA Government. Prime Minister Modi’s agenda of ensuring that the poorest are included in the economic hierarchy through various schemes seems to have bypassed Meghalaya. It is uncanny that the BJP here neither monitors how these schemes are implemented and whether they reach the last mile. That should be the brief of parties in a coalition. Beyond Shillong no one knows the BJP or speaks about the Party at the ground level. The BJP has done nothing by way of rural outreach. Whatever ground was gained by the Party to date is because of the silent work of the RSS, VHP and its other verticals here. The Meghalaya BJP per se has little to show by way of outreach programmes.
The fact is also that the two BJP MLAs who won the elections in 2018 have not been consistent in their stances. One was with the NCP and the other with the Congress. If they won it is because of reasons other than that they contested from the BJP. In Meghalaya there is a personality cult following and people don’t vote for a political party but for its nominee. Some people win no matter which party they contest from. This is what makes it difficult for any Party, the BJP included to rein them in. Sanbor Shullai is a law unto himself. How the BJP will fare in 2023 is uncertain as of now, unless the Party is able to instil discipline not in its karyakartas but in its so-called leaders.
