Adolkgre (Meghalaya):Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma on Monday kicked-off the National People’s Party (NPP’s) campaign for the Meghalaya Assembly polls with a word of caution to his West Bengal counterpart and Trinamool Congress chairperson, Mamata Banerjee saying, “many of her leaders from the state are already planning to desert the party once elections are over.”
“Madam Mamata Banerjee, that many leaders have joined you today; many leaders from different political parties have joined the TMC. But let me tell you and this is not Conrad Sangma saying it, this is the word in the market and you can ask anybody, you have lot of people in different networks they will tell you, that most of these leaders who have joined the TMC today have already planned to leave the TMC after the elections,” Sangma said, while expressing his respect to TMC supremo for once supporting his father (late) Purno Agitok Sangma.
“They (political leaders) are already in contact with different political parties; they are already talking to many people. I am not saying this, this is the word in the market, in the political circle,” the NPP supremo added.
The NPP officially kicked-off its campaign for the February 27 elections to the 60-member House Meghalaya Assembly at Adokgre (Chenangre) under Kharkutta in North Garo Hills onAdokgre , the name given to Adokgre by late PA Sangma, in the Garo dialect means “Land of Victory”. Adokgre holds great significance to NPP both as symbolic and emotional as former Lok Sabha Speaker (late) Purno Agitok Sangma had always launched his election campaigns from here.
Monday’s rally was special in many ways as the programme relived the life of PA Sangma through playback of his audio-video clips, where he talked about A’chik (Garo) pride and A’chik identity.
Speaking to the people, Sangma recalled his father Sangma’s vision to take Meghalaya forward and said how NPP was taking forward his legacy and fulfilling his unfinished tasks.
He talked about NPP and the work his party has done in five years in Meghalaya and how it envisions to continue the dream of PA Sangma.
At the same time, he also took a leaf out of TMC’s book to counter the TMC’s charges against him and his party. Sangma labelled TMC as a ‘outsider’ party, much in the same way TMC had labelled BJP in the West Bengal polls.
“TMC is new in Meghalaya and they will need lot of time to create any sort of impact here. Their leaders are all old players, who have come from Congress and have got scope to serve Meghalaya when they were in Congress but have failed. TMC is yet to understand the northeast and its people, they would need time, they are an outsider in Meghalaya just like TMC had claimed BJP and other national parties were outsider in Bengal elections,” the NPP Supremo said.
He also urged the people of Garo Hills to remember the legacy of late PA Sangma and vote for NPP .
