‘NPP, BJP are rivals’

SHILLONG, Jan 4: The National People’s Party (NPP) shrugged off its alleged association with the BJP stating that the two coalition partners are fighting against each other in all the constituencies.
To substantiate its claim, the party further said BJP is the biggest adversary of Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma in his own constituency.
“At the time of an election, there will always be allegations and counter allegations between political parties and for the TMC to allege that NPP is hand-in-gloves with the BJP is a very immature statement to make. In every constituency, where there are strong NPP candidates, there are also BJP contestants,” said NPP spokesperson Ampareen Lyngdoh on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Meghalaya TMC vice president George B Lyngdoh while talking about atrocities against the Christians said, “This is an agenda set by the BJP and the NPP together because the statements coming from both the parties seem to be anti-Christians and anti-minorities”. According to her, pre-elections scenarios are always like that where every other party is pointing fingers at every other party.
“If there are atrocities done against any communities irrespective of their religious background, it should be taken seriously and if there are enough corresponding evidences to justify this allegation, there should be necessary probe put in place,” she said.
Lyngdoh further said it’s clear that one of the adversaries of NPP is the BJP. She questioned, “If the BJP is conniving with the NPP, then why did the party field its candidates in all constituencies? You can see in the constituency of the Chief Minister, his biggest adversary is the BJP.”
She also questioned the rationale of two political parties’ fielding candidates against each other when they are on the same side.
Ampareen said, “I feel that these political arguments during an election are to be judged by the public. At present, the NPP is fighting alone without any pre-poll alliance with any political party but what will happen after election results are out is to be seen”.
“Look at what happened in 2018. All political parties were on the same side with the BJP. It was by choice or compulsion. We all are politically mature to evaluate the political scenario in Meghalaya,” she said and added that the veracity of TMC’s claim is unfounded.