State unit chief clarifies party’s decision to support NPP and
not contest the LS polls
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, March 25: Under fire from party workers and leaders, state BJP president Rikman Momin said the decision to not contest the Lok Sabha polls in Meghalaya and support the National People’s Party instead was not his own.
The decision was taken by the party’s central leadership and as the state BJP president, he has to abide by its orders.
“The decision to extend support to the NDA partner was not a personal one and we have to respect the Prime Minister,” he said.
Asked about the demand of leaders from the Garo Hills that NPP chief Conrad K. Sangma should have a meeting with them, Momin said the chief minister has been meeting with the BJP leaders of the Khasi Hills region.
“The CM is ready to meet our Garo Hills leaders once we finish the meetings in the Khasi Hills,” he said.
He claimed he had asked the BJP’s central leadership to reconsider the decision to not contest the parliamentary polls in Meghalaya.
“I had to convey our support to the chief minister because the central leaders had asked me to,” he said, defending his meeting with Sangma after the BJP decided to support the NPP candidates in Shillong and Tura.
The state BJP leaders have been finding it hard to pacify party workers unhappy with the central leadership’s decision.
There are reports of internal squabbling with a section within the party demanding the removal of Momin as the state president.
After party workers expressed their dissent at a meeting in Shillong on Saturday, the top BJP leaders in the Garo Hills called a meeting in Tura on Sunday to oppose the central leadership’s decision that let the “hard work of the party workers go to waste”.
Former GHADC CEM quits BJP
Our Correspondent from Tura adds: Former GHADC Chief Executive Member (CEM) and state vice president of BJP Meghalaya Pradesh, Dipul Marak has resigned from his post as well as from the BJP Primary membership of Rangsakona Mandal.
In a letter to the BJP State president, Marak cited the reasons for his resignation as personal.