SHILLONG, Nov 24: Deputy Chief Minister and NPP senior leader, Prestone Tynsong reiterated that the State BJP should leave the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) if it was uncomfortable working with the alliance.
Tynsong’s remark came just two days ahead of the meeting of the MDA coordination committee to which the BJP party president, Ernest Mawrie, and vice president, Bernard Marak have not been invited.
The NPP senior leader however informed that BJP legislators, AL Hek and Sanbor Shullai, who are the representatives of the saffron party in the MDA coordination committee, would attend the meeting scheduled on Thursday.
Denying allegations that the MDA neglected BJP, Tynsong said all partners of the ruling alliance were responsible for any programme organised by the state government.
He further informed that all issues of the MDA partners would be discussed in the coordination committee meeting which will be convened by the committee’s chairman and Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma.
On Congress’ dare to the ruling dispensation to drop BJP from the alliance if the latter went against the line, Tynsong replied, “Is Congress trying to say that they want to be accommodated in the MDA. If they want, let them submit an application and we will discuss.”
To a query as to whether the decision to introduce Central Bonded Warehouse (CBW) has irked the BJP president, Tynsong said that the decision to introduce CBW was taken collectively in the state Cabinet as it is much easier to recover revenue from one CBW instead of many bonded warehouses in the state.
The deputy chief minister wondered why so many issues were cropping up ever since the new BJP leadership took charge in the state.
“Previously, during the tenure of (former state BJP president) Shibun Lyngdoh, everything was fine, as everyone had a cordial relationship with each other,” Tynsong said.
