Shillong, Oct 4: State Congress Party leader Manuel Badwar said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is still a fringe player and cannot be considered a mainstream party.
The BJP was recently able to woo eight MLAs to its side as well as a JHADC MDC.
“Winning candidates with sheer muscle power is a different thing altogether,” Badwar told HP. “The BJP is losing ground in mainland India as well, especially among younger generations who are fed up with the BJP, misuse of powers and doing undemocratic things.”
Here in Meghalaya the BJP won just two seats in 2018 and retained the same two in 2023.
Commenting on the UDP legislators joining the BJP, Badwar termed this an “inorganic” merger.
“You only pull out the leaders without the mandate of the people. Remember people do not always vote for leaders but also for the party as well. When people vote for a party they also expect that the party survives but when a leader leaves the party disappointment will always be there and inorganic growth will not sustain in the long run,” he said.
The Meghalaya unit of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) also suffered big time because of that and the same will happen to the BJP, he predicted. The TMC went from no representation in the Assembly to 12 after a mass defection in 2021. However, only five were able to be elected in 2023 and the party has failed to capture the imagination of the wider Meghalaya public. That being said, the Congress has no MLAs in the Assembly after four of its crop from 2023 left to join the National People’s Party (NPP).
Badwar said people who voted for the UDP will have to look for alternatives and most of them will vote for Congress or the Voice of the People Party (VPP).
On the BJP’s strategy, he said, “All these times BJP attempted to penetrate Meghalaya from Garo Hills, Ri-Bhoi and other parts but it did not bear fruit. Now they see that the best option is to penetrate through Jaintia Hills and it seems the Deputy Chief Minister chair will also collapse.”
Badwar said that with 10 MLAs at present, the BJP will not play soft but will demand a much bigger role in the ruling coalition.
