Shillong, Feb. 9: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Purno A. Sangma again took on arch rival Salseng C. Marak, the PCC president, today, blaming him for all the major problems afflicting Meghalaya.

In the seven rallies that Sangma addressed today in and around the state capital, the NCP leader said Meghalaya would show Salseng C. Marak the door in the Assembly polls.

“The people in Garo Hills have already said that by expelling me, the Congress had expelled all the Garos and this time the Congress will be taught a lesson,” Sangma said.

The NCP leader, who has been campaigning vigorously all over the state for the past four months, said his party would throw the Congress out of Meghalaya politics.

He branded Marak and other Congress heavyweights like D.D. Lapang and O.L. Nongtdu “losers”.

He said that the United Democratic Party (UDP) — the largest regional group lead by E.K. Mawlong — was a “tainted party led by a tainted person”, referring to the Calcutta Meghalaya House deal.

“There is a wave blowing the NCP way and everyone wants a change. New and young leaders with new ideas and vision are in demand,” Sangma said as he projected NCP state unit president Robert Kharshiing as “a young and progressive leader” at a public meeting held at the Opera Hall here today.

In fact, in all his poll rallies, Sangma has been harping on the “NCP wave”. The results of the Babelapara district council election in West Garo Hills last year and the Mairang Assembly byelection in 1999, which the Congress lost, are indications of the people rejecting party, he said.

“The Congress has not projected a chief ministerial candidate because both Salseng Marak and Lapang will be losing the elections, not to talk of the others who are embroiled in corruption,” Kharshiing claimed.

The NCP has left out other parties like the BJP and even smaller regional parties like the Meghalaya Democratic Party out of its tirade, terming them as “non-entities without the requisite strength to form a government on their own”.