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| Khonglam: Taking on NCP |
Shillong, Feb. 6: Denied a ticket by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Meghalaya chief minister F.A. Khonglam today filed his nomination from the Hill State Peoples’ Democratic Party (HSPDP).
Khonglam had first won the Assembly elections on an HSPDP ticket in 1983 from Sohra constituency.
The chief minister, who turned 58 today, did not regret being denied a ticket by the NCP. Instead, he warned the NCP that its dreams of making a forceful debut “would be shattered”.
Soon after filing his nomination papers, Khonglam told reporters that he would “gradually expose the way most legislators of the NCP and a few from other parties were attempting to break up his government halfway just to become chief minister”.
Accusing the NCP leaders — general secretary Purno A. Sangma and home minister Lotsing A. Sangma — of being power-crazy, he said they were not only “greedily eyeing” the chief minister’s chair but “trying to outdo each other” in the attempt. “I was always open with them but I realised that I had no friends in the NCP,” he said.
Besides these two, there were several others who want to become chief minister, Khonglam claimed. In fact, Purno Sangma announced in Agartala recently that the NCP state unit president Robert Kharshiing was the party’s chief ministerial candidate.
The chief minister said he would inform NCP president Sharad Pawar about the “politics” Purno Sangma was indulging in the state. “I shall warn him that the NCP would meet the same fate like in other states for its divisive policies,” he added.
However, Khonglam was much more charitable towards the Congress, particularly PCC chief Salseng S. Marak, whom he credited with being instrumental in helping him form the People’s Forum of Meghalaya (PFM) government.
“Purno Sangma did not make me chief minister and he is not my mentor. In fact, he himself wanted to become chief minister and also tried his best to break up my government. He even advised me several times to drop Lotsing Sangma and Adolph Hitler Marak from the ministry,” Khonglam said.
