GUWAHATI: The National People’s Party (NPP), which heads the coalition government in Meghalaya, is going great guns.
After spreading its tentacles to Manipur and Nagaland, the party, formed by the late PA Sangma, has now made its presence felt in the poll-bound frontier state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Seven MLAs of opposition People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA) defected to the NPP and the revelation about their defection was made by NPP’s Arunachal unit chief Kicho Kabak. The MLAs changing political colours were Tanga Byaling, Rajesh Tacho, Tapang Taloh, Nikh Kamin, Tirong Aboh, Dikto Yekar and Mutchu Mithi.
Following their defection, the strength of non-Congress North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) in 60-member Arunachal House has gone up to 55. NPP is an ally of BJP which has 48 MLAs. PPA is now reduced to two members. There are two Independents and one Congress MLA.
Kabak told the media that the official paper as regards the seven MLAs’ defection from PPA to NPP had been submitted to Speaker TN Thongdok. He also said that the NPP’s ties with BJP would continue even after next year’s Parliamentary election.
NPP’s Arunachal unit spokesperson Nima Sange said: “The party will not project any of its candidates as chief minister but will focus on a common representative, which will be (Chief Minister) Pema Khandu”. Assembly election in Arunachal will be held next year.
The NPP has a solid base in Manipur where the party’s all four MLAs are in N Biren Singh’s Cabinet. One of them, Yumnam Joykumar Singh, is, in fact, the Deputy Chief Minister. In Nagaland, the party has two MLAs.