The National People’s Party (NPP) may be trying to put some distance between it and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and vice versa, but this is all for show in order to win votes, All India Congress Committee spokesperson Babita Sharma said today.
“I heard that the NPP don’t want to tie up with the BJP for the next election. They must have realised that the BJP is not creating harmony among the people,” she said, though she added that the NPP is two-faced, trying to make the people believe that it is against the BJP but joining them after the election.
“People should question them and realize that some politicians use the people’s sentiments for their own interest,” Sharma said.
The AICC member also raised the issue of the BJP’s divisiveness by drawing links between the party and the recent church desecration in North Garo Hills, which police, however, have put down to a mentally ill person.
“It was shocking to me to hear about the church incident in Meghalaya. Is this the kind of society we want where you can’t even have churches, temples where people can go and pray in peace? The religious harmony that was there has been destroyed by the BJP because religion should not enter the political space at all and ruin the fabric of the country,” she said, adding that those in alliance with the BJP have realized that the people will not vote for them if they remain with the saffron outfit.
Meanwhile, speaking about the raft of defections that have practically wiped out the Congress in the Meghalaya Assembly, Sharma said that the party would positively consider if a defector wanted to return.
“We cannot force anybody to be with us or leave. It has to come from within and whether you believe in the ideologies of the Congress Party or not,” she said. “We have seen that many have left the Congress because they have their own personal interest.”
Looking ahead to the upcoming state elections, which must be held by March 2023, Sharma said that the Congress could come back to power if it works hard in the few months remaining.
“The Congress has always had the interest of the tribal people and the North East in its heart. This is how Meghalaya and other North East states were formed (being carved out of Assam) and people should not forget that,” she added.
