Meghalaya is moving towards being Congress-free, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s member in charge of the state, Chuba Ao, said today.
The state BJP still appears to be rather unhappy that it was not consulted by the state government before the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance accepted the support of the five remaining Congress MLAs in the state on Tuesday.
The idea of Congress and the BJP working together is anathema to both parties but the Chief Minister tried to reassure his alliance partners the BJP that the support of the Congress was not meant as a snub to the saffron party.
Ao, meanwhile, tried to put a positive spin on the development.
Addressing a press conference today, he said that the five MLAs decided to support the MDA because they knew they cannot survive in the weakened Congress.
“They have their own tactics and have done a lot of internal exercise before joining,” Ao said. “The Congress supporting us is an example of their weakness. There is no harm in them supporting us because they are reducing themselves to zero,” he added, while revelling in the idea of a Congress-free India.
However, Ao reiterated that the party still wants a clarification from Chief Minister Conrad Sangma.
BJP state leaders today sent their feedback to the central leaders concerning this issue. State BJP president Ernest Mawrie said that the party is “confused and also disappointed with the Chief Minister, so we will be writing to him and will seek a clarification.”
However, there is no intention of the BJP withdrawing its support from the MDA.
The sense of hurt, though, was still present in the junior coalition partner. “I have already stated that when this decision was taken, we (the BJP) partners weren’t informed about this decision and only came to know through the media reports,” said Mawrie.
