SHILLONG, Dec 16: State BJP president Ernest Mawrie on Wednesday distanced the party from the recent statements of its two MLAs over a cabinet berth but negated any rift within.
Health Minister AL Hek, one of the two MLAs in discussion, also indicated that the BJP house was in order by saying he was not in favour of a change of guard in the party’s state unit.
“There is no friction. Whatever the MLAs said was their own decision,” Mawrie said, alluding to the meeting between South Shillong MLA Sanbor Shullai and Hek to end the issue of the cabinet berth.
Insisting that the MLAs have been privy to the discussions with the party’s Meghalaya in-charge M. Chuba Ao, Mawrie welcomed the “personal decision” of the two MLAs to let Hek continue as minister till the end of the MDA government’s term.
Shullai was expected to replace Hek for the lone spot for BJP in the Conrad K. Sangma-led ministry at the half-way mark of its term.
But on Tuesday, Shullai said he would focus on strengthening the party and let Hek continue as minister.
Earlier, the state BJP had accused Hek of hijacking the MDA coordination committee meeting from the party leaders. Mawrie was reportedly unhappy with not having been invited for any meeting of this committee after becoming the state BJP president unlike the heads of the other parties in the coalition.
Hek’s take
The Health Minister cleared the air on the demand for replacing Mawrie as state BJP president. “It is for the party’s central leadership to decide but I am not in favour of a change of guard,” he said.
Ruling out any differences within the party, Hek said the party was rather trying to be stronger in Meghalaya and be a force to reckon with before the 2023 Assembly elections.
“People will turn to the BJP by the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022 and everybody here will chant (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi’s name,” he said, adding that the BJP would keep its doors open for MLAs of other parties to join.
Hek also fancied himself as the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2023 polls. “The party had projected me as the CM candidate during the 2018 polls,” he said.
