Meghalaya Assembly polls: Congress dares NPP to quit NDA to prove they are not BJP's proxy party

Shillong: The Congress in Meghalaya on Saturday dared the National People’s Party (NPP), an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Manipur, to leave the NDA coalition to prove that they were not its proxy party. [caption id=“attachment_4280439” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The ruling Meghalaya Congress also alleged that the saffron party invited NPP leaders from Jaintia hills and Garo hills to Guwahati and jointly got into an exercise on how and where to field candidates. The BJP and NPP are contesting 27 February poll for 60-member Meghalaya Assembly separately. The counting of votes will take place on 3 March. “If they say that the NPP is not with the BJP then why don’t they leave the NDA, then only people will believe them,” AICC media-coordinator Bobeeta Sharma told reporters in Shillong. Otherwise, no matter how hard the NPP tries to explain their position, their actions will still show that the party is with the BJP, she said. She said, “They just want to give the impression that they are not in favour of Modi.” State Cabinet Minister Ronnie V Lyngdoh said the party’s claim on the BJP-NPP nexus was substantiated when Tura MP Conrad K Sangma’s praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech in Parliament. Lyngdoh alleged that the BJP invited NPP leaders from Jaintia hills and Garo hills to Guwahati and jointly got into an exercise to field candidates. Predicting that the NPP would get only “single digit” seats in the coming state assembly polls, the minister said, “the people here will reject any party which has anything to do with a communal party.” He also cited how the BJP shifted its candidate Banteilang Rumnong from Sohra to Pynursla to aide the NPP candidate, also a former Congress leader P Tynsong. The NPP is in alliance with BJP at the Centre, in Manipur and Rajasthan and is part of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance. “It goes to prove beyond any doubt that NPP is working together with the party leading the alliance which is none other than the BJP. To say that they are not together is all hogwash,” the Meghalaya Congress leader said. On NPP projection of Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) President Nitish Kumar as the leader to unseat PM Narendra Modi and not Rahul Gandhi, the Congress media coordinator said the statement of NPP state president Wanwei Roy Kharlukhi was overboard.