MAWSHYNRUT: After Meghalaya's ruling National People's Party (NPP) announced it will go it alone in the Assembly election due next year, Leader of the Opposition Mukul Sangma alleged that Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has been a "puppet" appointed by Delhi.
Conrad Sangma, also the NPP president, is heading a coalition government of which the BJP is a constituent. "The NPP-led MDA government has been formed by PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. CM Conrad Sangma is merely a puppet appointed by Delhi," Mukul Sangma said while addressing a party meeting at Mawshynrut town of West Khasi Hills district on Friday.
Meghalaya threw up a fractured mandate in the 2018 Assembly elections with the Congress emerging as the largest party, marginally ahead of the NPP, an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Manipur. The BJP and several other parties later stitched the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) and formed the government in the state.
Mukul Sangma, a former chief minister who along with 11 other Congress MLAs joined the Trinamool Congress last year, claimed that Shah persuaded Conrad Sangma to sign the border agreement with Assam, a BJP-ruled state.
Assam and Meghalaya on March 29 this year signed an agreement in New Delhi to end their five-decade-old border dispute in six of the 12 contested locations that often raised tension between the two states, with the Union home minister calling it a "historic day" for the North-eastern region.
Before that, the two North-eastern neighbours inked an MoU on January 29 to resolve the boundary problem in those six locations in the first phase. Meghalaya's Opposition Chief Whip George B Lyngdoh had alleged that the state government has given away 66 acres of land in Ri-Bhoi district to Assam.
The CM, however, had informed the Assembly on March 15 that the 36.79 sq km of the disputed area in these six areas will be shared almost equally by the two states.
"Now, the NPP is saying it will scrap the alliance with the BJP and contest alone in the 2023 elections," Mukul Sangma said. The NPP on Friday announced that it will not go with any alliance partner in the next Assembly polls.
"We must work together to safeguard the interests of our people, our tribes, our culture, our kids, and for our coming generations. The current proxy-BJP government is inefficient in preserving the uniqueness of our identity," Mukul Sangma said.
Claiming that a "divisive force from outside came in and formed an unholy alliance," he asserted that people will vote for change in the coming year.