SHILLONG, Aug 14: The state unit of the BJP on Wednesday rubbished the charge of backstabbing coalition partner NPP and said the regional party was a victim of its own propaganda.
“There is no backstabbing; we never backstab. We assured 80,000 votes from our side and we gave 80,000 votes. They lost because their own people did not vote for them,” state BJP vice president and Tura MDC Bernard N Marak said.
Cabinet Minister and NPP leader Rakkam Sangma had accused the BJP of backstabbing the NPP in the last Lok Sabha polls in the Tura seat. He also referred to a report of Bernard acknowledging the same.
Reacting to this, Bernard said, “He has not gone through the interview of the local news channel. I have said that when NPP had stopped the ticket for BJP, we did not put up a candidate (as) we were instructed to support them.”
“Just before the Lok Sabha elections, we had mobilised hills and plains and people were ready to vote for BJP. Unfortunately, BJP did not get a ticket. We were instructed to support NPP and when the instruction came, it did not go down well with many of the leaders started leaving the party. Many karyakartas went against the party and voted for Congress,” he added. He clarified, “I never said I supported Saleng. I said he came to seek support but I as a hardcore BJP member could never vote for Congress. I could not stop those who left the party.”
Bernard claimed that not just the BJP, the NPP also faced a similar problem where their supporters did not vote for their candidate and that precisely was the reason why Saleng won. There was no Congress wave, he further claimed.
Stating that NPP was a victim of its own propaganda, he reminded that during election campaign, it had stated that NPP and BJP are the same – while BJP faces the problem of being a Hindu party, the NPP faced a backlash for it.
