SHILLONG, Jan 29: The NPP on Sunday said it will save Meghalaya from the ill intent of the TMC to fill the state with “illegal immigrants” from Bangladesh.
The TMC had approached the February 27 elections with the “Save Meghalaya” slogan aimed at “bailing the state out of the misrule” of the NPP and its allies.
“From whom do we have to save Meghalaya? From the illegal Bangladeshis, who the TMC has been protecting all this while (in West Bengal)?” NPP spokesperson Bajop Pyngrope asked.
“We will make sure we will save Meghalaya from illegal infiltration, save Meghalaya from the Bangladeshis that TMC is trying to bring to Meghalaya. That is our agenda,” he said.
Referring to TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s attack on the NPP national president and Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, Pyngrope advised the TMC leader to tour Meghalaya extensively beyond the urban centres he visited “perhaps thrice”.
Asserting that the TMC hardly has any presence in the state, he said: “In Garo Hills, we have a multi-cornered fight and TMC is not our main opponent. We are fighting against Congress that still has its vote bank and a few other parties.”
He said the TMC candidates are ex-Congress leaders who will be fighting against rivals of the party they quit and that will be a blessing in disguise for the NPP.
He termed the WE and MYE cards of the TMC as nothing but false promises that the “people have seen through”.