BJP predicts early elections in Meghalaya

Shillong, June 21: The BJP on Tuesday said the the Congress government in Meghalaya headed by Mukul Sangma would not be able to last its full term until 2018.

"Given the trend what the people of Meghalaya are sending as a message, I don't think this government will last its full term. It will fall under the burden of its own power games and contradictions," BJP national spokesperson Nalin S. Kohli told journalists here.

His statement assumed significance in the wake of the infighting within the ruling party over the demand of the change of leadership.

"Mukul Sangma's government is groaning and moaning under the weight of its own internal contradictions and power tussles," claimed Kohli, who is also the in-charge of the party in Meghalaya.

Moreover, he said the people of the state, and especially Garo Hills, had sent a "loud, clear, unambiguous message" by rejecting the Congress and its policies in the by-election to the Tura parliamentary constituency in western Meghalaya.

National People's Party candidate Conrad Sangma, the youngest son of former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma, won the by-election by nearly two lakh votes against Congress candidate Dikkanchi D. Shira, the wife of Chief Minister Sangma.

"When Sangma's wife loses in 23 of the 24 Assembly constituencies to Conrad Sangma, the writing cannot be clearer on the wall," Kohli said.

Revealing that members from various parties, including the Congress, are joining the BJP, he said: "When a ship is sinking, everyone likes to leave that ship, and everybody likes to join a party of hope. When people elected a party of development and a party of positive agenda for gover nance, this wave is continuing everywhere.

"In Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma and others left the Congress, and its negative politics, and the people of Assam gave the BJP a historic mandate," he said, adding their doors were open to "anyone who comes with a decision to be part of BJP's politics of development" and "who does not join the BJP with pre-conditions and terms of seeking power".

IANS