Shillong, Aug. 28: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) today came down hard on the Congress, blaming it for trying to split the party into two factions.
NCP state unit president Edmund K. Sangma today accused the Congress of playing “its usual game” of dividing other parties. Sangma, who is on an official tour of Bangalore, said over telephone that he was not aware of the developments in Shillong.
He was referring to recent reports which claimed that five NCP members, led by Cyprian Sangma, would break away from the party and join the Congress.
Reports quoting Francis Pondit Sangma, who recently deserted the NCP to join the Congress, claimed that five NCP members have approached the Congress and have expressed their willingness to merge with it. Reports are also doing the rounds that the five NCP members have sought plum portfolios as a condition to join the Congress.
The Congress had recently inducted Pondit Sangma as parliamentary secretary of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government. The party’s total strength has now gone up from 23 to 24 members in the Assembly. However, the Congress strategy to split the NCP has angered most of the latter’s members.
NCP president Edmund Sangma said, “Cyprian is with me and even Monindro Rava, whose name I am told also surfaced, is very much with us. It is a Congress ploy which will never succeed. I cannot read the minds of members in my own party, but if they want to switch sides, it is their democratic right. However, as of now we are all united,” Sangma said.
The NCP leader warned that his party would not miss any opportunity to split the Congress if it continued “these policies”. The lone NCP legislator from the Khasi Hills, Ardhendhu Chaudhuri, too, said he was “not surprised” by “the Congress tricks”.
Chaudhuri’s name, together with those of some other NCP legislators, had been bandied about as those likely to break the party.
“I shall not change the colour of my coat. I said this before the elections and I reiterate that even if the others walk away, I shall remain loyal to the party,” Chaudhuri, who won the last elections from the Mawprem constituency, said.
Before the last Assembly polls, Chaudhuri had said he would make only one promise — “to remain in the NCP”. Chaudhuri, too, charged the Congress of “trying out what it knows best — to break other parties”.
Some other parties, mostly regional ones, also seemed wary of the fact that the Congress was going all out to swell its numbers.
“Like the NCP, the Congress may try similar tricks with our parties. Therefore, we have to be very careful,” said members close to some regional parties who are part of the MDA coalition.
