SHILLONG, June 16: Amid an apparent infighting within the State BJP camp and growing clamour for change in the party’s leadership, senior BJP leader and Health Minister AL Hek has expressed willingness to take up the post of state party president, if offered.
“As a leader I will have to take it up, if offered, as we will have to work for the party. I am a small karyakarta and I work for the party and if they give me (the post), I have no problem,” said Hek on Wednesday.
His response comes at a time when there is an apparent division within the State BJP and many of the disgruntled party leaders have already communicated to the central leadership about their desire to remove the incumbent party president, Ernest Mawrie.
Admitting that there is a voice of dissent and disagreement in the State BJP, the senior BJP leader, however, said, “To every problem there is a solution. In a big party and family, fight is always there but it is a constructive fight and not destructive”.
Asked whether the BJP central leadership is in the knowhow of the current state of affairs in state, Hek said, “I am in touch with the central leaders about what is going on in the state but it is all for constructive reasons”.
On the growing demand from certain sections of the BJP leadership for the current State BJP president to either step down or be removed, the BJP MLA said, “We leave it to the wisdom and decision of the national party to see who is the best to take the leadership of BJP in our state”.
Asked if there is any such move to remove Mawrie, Hek said it depends on the state and national leadership of the party. It is worth mentioning here that the State BJP leaderships across several districts are constantly at loggerheads with each other after the GHADC elections with one side blaming the party president for its poor performance and his dictatorial attitude, while the party’s chief, Ernest Mawrie, defending his stand stating that all that he did was conforming with the constitution of the party.
On the sidelines, the state Health minister also said that neither the state government nor the State BJP has received any official confirmation or communication about Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to state.
