The leader of the Congress Party released the party’s manifesto for the February 27 elections. (document)
Shillong:
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday accused the Conrad K Sangma-led NPP, UDP and TMC of being BJP’s “puppets” in Meghalaya at the polls.
Claiming that the Meghalaya polls would be a “watershed election” for Congress, Ramesh said 47 of its 60 candidates were “under the age of 45, which has never happened in any state”.
He said such decisions help to differentiate young people.
Congress leaders attending the Feb. 27 parliamentary elections said Meghalaya meant the abode of clouds, but “the clouds are not clouds of rain but clouds of corruption, unemployment and blackouts”.
“Congress is battling the cloud of corruption and unemployment, the identity of Meghalaya being destroyed and finally the cloud of unholy alliances – BJP, NJP, UDP, TMC – who all claim they are fighting for independence to fight elections…’ said the former trade unions minister.
The congressional leader also asserted that “there are BJP puppets in different states”.
“Here (in Meghalaya) there is a puppet called NPP, there is another puppet called UDP, now there is a new puppet, a third puppet has entered Meghalaya politics, TMC or JMP (Judah Muku Seoul Party),” he claimed.
The leader of the opposition, former chief minister Mukul Sanma, former speaker of parliament Charles Pingrope and 10 other MPs switched allegiance to Mamata Banerjee’s TMC in 2021.
“These are all part of the BJP game plan. NPP is the A team for the BJP, UDP is the B team and TMC or JMP is the C team,” Ramesh claimed.
He also claimed that despite the demonetisation, “a lot of monetization happened because of the BJP”.
Noting that allies of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance are campaigning independently for the upcoming parliamentary elections, he claimed that “the NPP, UDP and BJP are all part of the same package”.
Ramesh, referring to the former Congress leader who is now with other parties as “Judas”, said, “One of the benefits of this desertion is that they create vacancies, the first time we have so many young people. 60 Ten of the candidates were women. No other party in Meghalaya has given such representation to women,” he said.
Ramesh said their departure was a “get out of the woods” and that their commitment to the values of Congress and its ideology was “not very strong”.
The Congress suffered a major loss in recent years as none of its 17 MLAs who were elected in 2018 is with the party. While 12 of them attended Trinamool in 2021, the remaining five are vying for NPP and UDP tickets.
(Aside from the title, this story is unedited by NDTV staff and published via a syndicated feed.)
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