From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI, Oct 6: The BJP has formed a three-member top-level central committee to deal with the division within the party unit in Meghalaya and oversee its preparedness for the Assembly elections less than six months away.
The BJP is also sending its national president, JP Nadda to the state this month in a bid to iron out the differences and kick-start the election process.
The three members of the committee are Sambit Patra, the BJP’s newly-appointed coordinator for the Northeast, Rituraj Sinha, the joint coordinator and M Chuba Ao, the party’s Meghalaya in-charge.
Party insiders said Nadda is expected to visit the hill state soon after the Diwali festivities. It is not clear if he would also visit Nagaland and Tripura, the two other states going to the polls simultaneously with Meghalaya.
The division in the beleaguered state unit came out in the open with the BJP’s lone Cabinet Minister, Sanbor Shullai saying that the party will continue to support the NPP-led government in Meghalaya.
His assertion came almost a month after Ao said the party would soon take a call on whether to continue supporting the government headed by Conrad K Sangma because of “large-scale irregularities and corruption”.
Shullai said withdrawing support to the government at this juncture would send a wrong message to the BJP supporters, a remark seconded by the party’s state president Ernest Mawrie, who claimed that Ao had made the remark without consulting other state leaders.
Mawrie, who may contest from the West Shillong Assembly constituency, has been asked to focus on organisational works. The sitting MLA is Mohendro Rapsang (suspended from Congress), who was once keen on switching over to the saffron camp and is now set to join the NPP.
The BJP won two seats in 2018 when Nalin Kohli was the state in charge. The party had won a maximum of three Assembly seats in the state earlier.
Under Ao, a Naga leader, the BJP hopes to penetrate deeper into Meghalaya.
It had formed a post-poll alliance with the NPP after Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma intervened in his capacity as the convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance.
Sources said the party has a better chance of improving its Assembly seat tally with many sitting MLAs and leaders from Congress, Trinamool Congress and some regional parties having opened backroom channels with central BJP leaders.
The NPP, too, is under pressure as its supporters feel the BJP – wielding power at the Centre – is a better option to push developmental activities in Meghalaya, the sources said.