Guwahati: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will announce its election manifesto on February 14.
Meghalaya BJP vice-president Bernard N Marak emphasised that the saffron party is not against Christians or any other religion.
Marak on February 9 denied claims that the party is “anti-Christian” in remarks to the media.
The militant leader-turned-politician continued by saying that the BJP is opposed to corruption just like a true Christian. His remarks are significant because the majority of people in the remaining northeastern states are not Christians, unlike Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland, which are Christian-dominated states.
The BJP on February 10 attacked the National People’s Party over the state’s coal mining controversy.
The BJP said that the NPP had promised to address the issue of a coal mining prohibition they are still unable to do so. The BJP argued that people shouldn’t support the NPP in the upcoming elections since they don’t keep their campaign pledges.
National People’s Party Chief Conrad K Sangma declared on February 9 that the NPP will win a majority in Meghalaya. According to a press release from the NPP, Conrad Sangma attacked TMC leader Mukul Sangma during a speech in Songsak and claimed that it was because of his enormous ego that he decided to leave the Congress and join the TMC after Vincent Pala was named president of the Congress in Meghalaya.
“Congress party got divided. Congress was a strong opposition in the State. They used to strongly debate with us (NPP) in assembly. However, the fraction in Congress has weakened the opposition. It further got weakened with TMC also breaking away, with many from TMC joining other political parties. There is practically no opposition in the State,” the NPP chief said.
He referred to NPP as a platform for the tribal people of Meghalaya and the rest of the country that was established by the late PA Sangma. He asked for support from the public to help the party become stronger because it has made significant gains throughout the State and because the people of Songsak should band together to vote for NPP.