Tag: National People

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: After its sterling performance in Manipur, the Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma-led National People’s Party (NPP) is now eying Nagaland.

In Manipur, the NPP had upstaged the Congress to become the principal opposition party. It feels the Manipur results will have a ripple effect in Nagaland.

The NPP had won two seats in the 2018 Nagaland polls but suffered a jolt soon after when both MLAs jumped ship. With the state bracing for the elections again, the NPP has started the groundwork.

“The Centre pumped so much money into Nagaland but we are yet to have the basic infrastructure. People are lying low but they see a good hope for them in the NPP because it is a sleeping lion,” the party’s Nagaland president Andrew Ahoto Sema told The New Indian Express.

“We are working undercurrent. Our election-related activities will be visible from September/October,” he added.

The Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) heads Nagaland’s ruling coalition where the BJP is a key component.

Sema lamented the change in the Neiphiu Rio government’s “change is coming” tagline remained elusive.

“We have never had any finger-pointing on anything but we feel the state should flourish. It has been for nearly 20 years that the people of Nagaland are waiting to see the change which the CM had spoken about,” the NPP Nagaland chief said.

He said the party was grooming the potential workers to make them election-ready. He claimed the NPP also received feelers from some MLAs of ruling parties who were willing to join it.

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“They have given us a word that they will join us at the last moment after everything goes off well. So, we have got some sympathisers and they know the NPP will surely do well in 2023,” Sema said.

The NPP has nothing to lose. It can have an alliance with anybody, he added.

“The results in Manipur will surely have a ripple effect in Nagaland. We did not go negative integer but went high by winning seven seats, three more than the 2017 tally of four. But a national party like the Congress slumped. Our graph is slowly going up,” Sema said.

He observed that the regional parties of the Northeast could do better by aligning with the NPP.

“They can align with us and grow to a better level. This is our ideology. We espouse ‘one voice, one Northeast’ so that we have a common platform where we can raise our issues. We understand our people better. We have a dynamic leader in Conrad Sangma,” Sema said.

He insisted the solution to the “Naga political problem” should also come with infrastructure projects apart from what would be agreed upon by the negotiating parties.

“I feel the Centre should give us infrastructure projects. We need medical colleges. Currently, we have none. We need industries, roads, electricity, water, and development. We are so close to Myanmar but we don’t have an international airport,” Sema lamented.

The NPP heads the ruling coalition in Meghalaya and has four MLAs in Arunachal. It also has its presence in Assam.

Express News Service
GUWAHATI: The BJP is getting a taste of its own medicine as the National People’s Party (NPP) cold-shouldered its saffron ally in staking claim for power in a tribal council in Meghalaya.

The Congress had emerged as the single largest party in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) by winning 12 of the 29 seats. With 11 seats, the National People’s Party (NPP), which heads the state’s ruling coalition where the BJP is one of the constituents, came a close second. The BJP had bagged two seats while the regional Garo National Council (GNC) won one. Three seats went to Independent candidates.

A party or a coalition requires the support of a minimum 15 Members of District Council (MDCs) to rise to power in the GHADC. With exactly 15 MDCs, the NPP has a razor-thin majority. The BJP was dreaming big but the NPP went to the three Independents and the lone elected member from the GNC for support.

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, who is also the NPP’s national president, told a local newspaper “every election is fought on its own terms and conditions”.

One of the reasons why the BJP had to suffer the snub was that it had purportedly set its sights on the post of the council’s Chief Executive Member despite winning just two seats. The NPP sought to avoid complexities.

Treating allies differently in different elections has been a strategy for the BJP. The latest example of it is the December elections to the Bodoland Territorial Council in Assam. The BJP had ditched the Bodoland People’s Front while forming the new executive council despite the two being constituents of the state’s three-party coalition government.

The NPP’s action in Meghalaya has left the BJP livid.

“They are sidelining the BJP because they are scared that it will bring before the public the cases of corruption and manipulation that they had indulged in. They want to conceal the anomalies committed in the GHADC,” BJP state vice president and newly-elected MDC, Bernard Marak told The New Indian Express on Sunday.

A coalition of parties, led by the NPP, is in power in the outgoing GHADC executive council.

“They want to bury the problems instead of correcting them. That is precisely the reason why they don’t want the BJP in the executive council. This is, however, not a big issue for us,” Marak asserted.

He added the BJP would not compromise on the corruption issue in the GHADC. The party has kept flagging it for a long time. The alleged irregularities committed in this autonomous council were said to be to the tune of over Rs 100 crore.