NEW DELHI: The AICC on Sunday taunted the continuing alliance between the ruling NPP and BJP in the North East despite contesting against each other in both Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, including in its home state Meghalaya.
In a sharp riposte to the BJP top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, making fun of the Opposition’s grand alliance as “circus of mahagathbandhan”, the Congress wondered whether they were hitting at the 30-member BJP-led NDA during 2014 now becoming a 42-member alliance.
The so-called party with a difference is in coalition with NPP in Meghalaya and other NE states, but also contesting against it in the entire region, including the hill state, Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said.
He said the BJP is “a master of opportunistic alliances,” demonstrating how it enters alliances and drop them just to remain in power. On Modi dubbing the Opposition’s grand alliance as mahamilavati (massive adulteration), Surjewala took pot shots.
On BJP’s stand that “alliances should happen in the interest of the nation,” better to see how BJP and its alliance partners have treated each other, he said.
He went on to give examples: BJP aligned with NPP in NE, but broke parties in small states like People’s Party of Arunachal in Arunachal Pradesh.
BJP shares power with NPP in Meghalaya, but both have fielded candidates against each other in all the Northeastern states. It is strange that BJP is part of the government and at the same time, they are fighting against each other, he said.
Surjewala further gave some stark examples of ‘duplicity’ by saying that in Assam, BJP dumped its ally AGP on ideological issue after it pushed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, but patched up for “power at any cost”.
In Sikkim, the BJP dumped long-term ally the Sikkim Democratic Front and formed opportunistic alliance with the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, he went on to add.
