No force can divide NCP-backed MPA govt: Sangma

Shillong, Apr 11: The NCP has reaffirmed its commitment to the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) government in the state, saying that it will support the alliance till the end of its five-year-term, even as the Congress was endeavouring to form another alliance with the NCP.

''The NCP is not going to create another alliance. We are committed and united in our stand towards the MPA to complete its full five-year term and no force can divide this coalition,'' Meghalaya Planning Board Chairman and NCP national general secretary Purno A Sangma said. Meanwhile, the Meghalaya United Alliance legislators with 28 members - 25 Congress and three Independents - exuded confidence to replace the United Democratic Party-led MPA government with the support of the NCP in a span of three months.The NCP has 15 Legislators in the 60-member Assembly and is backing the MPA government.

Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president O L Nongtdu, who had campaigned in New Delhi along with former Chief Minister D D Lapang for an alliance with the NCP in Meghalaya, had claimed of the formation of a Congress-NCP government in the state after both leaders of both parties worked out a pre-poll alignment in Maharashtra.

Mr Sangma, however, rubbished the Congress's claims and said, ''Mr Sharad Pawar believed in decentralisation of powers and would never interfere with the decision of the state party leaders as far as the alliance with the Congress is concerned.'' He added that even if there was a pre-poll alliance between the NCP and Congress at the Centre and in Maharashtra and Karnataka, there would be no legal hurdles in the way of the MPA government.

''Meghalaya politics is entirely different from that of Maharastra and Karnataka,'' he said.

The MPA comprises of the Nationalist Congress Party (15), United Democratic Party (11), Hill State Peoples Democratic Party (2), one each from the BJP and the Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement and two Independents.

UNI