Meghalaya CM Sangma rules out tie-up with BJP in future polls, says Centre must resolve Manipur crisis

On NPP losing both LS seats it contested, Conrad Sangma, in an interview with ThePrint, said his party's 'alignment' with certain other parties & anti-incumbency may have been factors.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma | ANI file photo

Shillong: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has ruled out the possibility of any pre-poll tie-up between his National People’s Party (NPP) and current ally BJP in the future, saying the NPP has identified the reasons behind its drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections. 

While avoiding a direct reference to the BJP, Sangma, in an interview to ThePrint at the Meghalaya Secretariat, said the NPP’s “alignment” with certain political parties, along with anti-incumbency, could have been the factors behind its defeat. 

“This was a tough election for us. We have looked into many factors. Somewhere along the line people have mentioned our alignment with different political parties as an issue. In some areas we have looked at certain aspects of anti-incumbency. So, multiple factors have been identified and we are now in the process of finding ways to amend those and find a way forward,” he said.

Sangma further said that, going ahead, the NPP will fight every election solo and explore the possibility of forming post-poll coalitions based on need. 

“We have always maintained our stand that we would like to contest our elections on our own ideologies. Therefore it is highly unlikely that there will be any kind of situation where there will be a tie-up. But we’ve been very clear that we work in a coalition. As and when elections are done, based on the situation of governance, we decide on what to do,” he added.

The BJP, which is a part of the NPP-led ruling alliance in Meghalaya, had backed both Lok Sabha candidates of NPP, who contested from Shillong and Tura, instead of entering the fray in the state. While the Congress won the Tura seat, the newly established Voice of the People Party (VPP) clinched Shillong.

The BJP, which managed to win only two seats each in the last two assembly polls in Meghalaya, was part of the previous state government led by Sangma as well. Relations between the local units of the two parties has, however, been uneasy from the beginning.

After his party’s Lok Sabha defeat, NPP leader and Meghalaya cabinet minister Rakkam Sangma had squarely blamed the BJP’s emphasis on Hindutva. Asked about the remarks of his cabinet colleague, the CM said it would not be fair to put the entire blame on the BJP.

The NPP president pointed out that in 2016, when he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tura in a bypoll necessitated by the death of his father, former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma, the BJP had backed him openly. 

“Every situation and every kind of factor can have plus and minus impact in politics. In this particular case, there could be some areas where the concerns were there, but to completely blame any political party for whatever happened to us, is not fair and correct on our part,” Sangma said.

In Manipur, where the NPP is a junior partner in the ruling alliance led by the BJP, the ties between the two parties have been frosty as well. Last week, the Manipur unit of the NPP threatened to walk out of the alliance if the ethnic conflict in the state is not resolved in the next three months. 

Speaking to ThePrint, Sangma, whose sister Agatha failed to retain the Tura Lok Sabha seat this time, said the Centre “can play a very strong role” and should act to find solutions that can help restore peace in Manipur, where trust deficit between communities has grown “exponentially”.

‘Manipur situation very complicated, Centre must find way forward’

Saying that the NPP is concerned, Sangma described the situation in Manipur as “very complicated”, while adding that the political leadership at the level of the Centre and the state need to take responsibility and find the way forward. 

The Meghalaya CM, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week and sought a package of Rs 1,000 crore to develop a new township to decongest Shillong, said the NPP has been continuously urging the Centre to ease the situation in Manipur. “There’s a lot of trust deficit that has come into Manipur, and many factors have affected the entire situation. Trust deficit has been there for a long time, in certain levels, but when the situation came out, it exponentially grew. “

He added: “The Centre can play a very strong role in making that (peace) possible and moving forward in the right direction by sending a good and positive message across. I am very clear that we need to find some solutions and as leadership, whether it’s at our party level, or at the national level or state level, we need to act to find solutions.”

(Edited by Gitanjali Das)