Shillong, Sep 17: Newly-inducted cabinet minister Sanbor Shullai today said that he “hopes” that one day Meghalaya will get the Inner Line Permit (ILP) and a railway line in Khasi Hills.
He seemed to suggest that it would take a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government to get ILP, though. “Why don’t the people of the state try to give power by electing at least 31 MLAs of the BJP to form the government for five years? Then you will see the light of day,” he said a day after being sworn in as a cabinet minister.
The Hindutva party currently has just two MLAs in the 60-member Assembly and has found Christian-majority Meghalaya a tough nut to crack.
On the issue of railways, Shullai hoped that, under the leadership of Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma of the National People’s Party, the government will try to convince the pressure groups of the benefits rail has brought to other parts of the North East, including Garo Hills. “We should accept that at least the goods train should come up to Byrnihat,” Shullai said, adding that this will benefit the public and generate employment for local youths.
Meanwhile, he said that the BJP has been trying to raise its profile in Meghalaya in the two and a half years since the last state election.
“In line with the directive of the party leadership in Delhi we are moving all over the state and we will intensify our campaign,” Shullai stated, adding a hope that the BJP will get at least eight to ten seats at the next election, which is due in 2028. This has been a long-held target of the saffron party, though so far it has been unattainable.
He also confessed that the BJP is trying to lure sitting MLAs from other parties into its fold. “We are in touch with them and hopefully plenty of them will be joining the BJP,” he added.
The minister claimed that Meghalaya has benefitted from having a BJP-led government at the Centre and that the party has gained traction in the state based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “good works”.
‘Grateful that seat-sharing deal with Hek was honoured’
New cabinet minister Sanbor Shullai today reiterated that when the current state government was formed in 2023, the two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators (Alexander Laloo Hek being the other) agreed to share a cabinet berth.
This was the same arrangement in the state government of 2018 to 2023 when Shullai stepped into Hek’s shoes midway through the term. This time again Hek has made way for Shullai, though there appeared to be some resistance on the former’s part until the reshuffle was pushed through yesterday.
“Back then, in the presence of the then BJP state president Ernest Mawrie, we signed an agreement … to share the cabinet berth for two and a half years each,” Shullai told reporters on the first day of assuming office.
He said that the agreement has been honoured by the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and the BJP high command in Delhi.
Shullai also expressed his happiness with the portfolios allocated to him by the CM, namely Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, Arts and Culture, Printing and Stationery and Legal Metrology.
He highlighted his past initiatives as Arts and Culture Minister, including erecting a bust of Khasi freedom fighter Tirot Sing Syiem in Dhaka and full-size statues of Syiem and other freedom fighters Kiang Nongbah and Pa Togan Sangma at the State Central Library premises here.
