BJP support for Congress during LS polls irks NPP

SHILLONG, Aug 13: The National People’s Party has reasons to believe the BJP backstabbed it during the election to the Tura Lok Sabha seat in April.
NPP leader and Cabinet minister, Rakkam Sangma on Tuesday took a strong note of BJP leader Bernard Marak’s assertion that members of the saffron party supported Congress in the parliamentary polls.
“We did not expect this as we thought BJP was an ally but Bernard Marak has brought out the truth now. It was probably the first time that the BJP worked to make Congress win an election,” he said.
Stating that the BJP has some 70,000-80,000 dedicated voters in the Tura parliamentary constituency, Sangma said he saw top leaders of the BJP campaigning for Congress in the polls.
He said the BJP “scored a penalty” against the NPP. “Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has already announced that NPP will no longer have any alliance with the BJP,” he added.
The minister also said support should come from the heart and not from the mouth.
The BJP and the NPP claimed that they supported each other for the Lok Sabha elections with the former deciding not to field candidates in the two parliamentary seats in Meghalaya to ensure victory for the latter.
The partnership, however, did not go down well with the voters in both constituencies.
Consequently, Congress won the Tura seat and the Voice of the People Party took Shillong.
Sangma denied any knowledge of three Congress MLAs trying to join the NPP but said sitting in the opposition will not help them serve the people.
“It is better to work together for the people,” he added.
Ardent’s ‘revolution’ remark riles Rakkam
Sangma condemned VPP chief Ardent Basaiawmoit’s recent call for a Bangladesh-like revolution in Meghalaya, and said politics should have limitations and not cross a certain boundary.
Refusing to comment any further on Basaiawmoit’s statement, he said no individual should take any reference from the incident in Bangladesh where hundreds of people were killed and even the prime minister was forced to flee the country and take shelter in India.