Four NPP, TMC MLAs join BJP in poll-bound Meghalaya

Four MLAs, belonging to both the ruling National People's Party (NPP) and Opposition Trinamool Congress on Wednesday joined BJP in Meghalaya as the state gears up for Assembly elections early next year.

Two MLAs--Bendic R Marak and Ferlin CA Sangma belong to the NPP while H M Shangpliang is a TMC MLA, who switched over to the Mamta Banerjee-led party from Congress in November last year. Samuel M Sangma, an Independent was the fourth MLA who joined BJP along with three in New Delhi on Wednesday.

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This comes a day after TMC chief and Bengal Chief Minister addressed a meeting of her party leaders in Shillong with a target to wrest power from NPP and BJP in 2023. TMC became the biggest Opposition party in Meghalaya after 12 Congress MLAs led by former CM Mukul Sangma joined it in November 2021.

The four Meghalaya MLAs joined the saffron party in the presence of Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is the convenor of North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a BJP-led forum of its regional allies in the Northeast. Interestingly, the NPP is part of the NEDA. Rajya Sabha MP, Anil Baluni, BJP national spokesperson and Northeast in-charge, Sambit Patra, National Secretary of the BJP, Rituraj Sinha, Meghalaya State Party President, Ernest Mawrie, and others attended the joining program.

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With two MLAs, BJP has been a minor ally in the NPP-led government since 2018 but the saffron party, this time, has set a target to form a BJP-led government in Christian-majority state. The NPP has already announced to contest the election on its own while BJP has stepped up attacks on the NPP alleging corruption and lack of development in the past four and half years.

Welcoming the MLAs, Himanta Biswa Sharma said people in the Northeast have well accepted BJP by electing BJP-led governments twice in a row in three states: Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. He said in order to take the momentum going, BJP is preparing for the elections in Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland, slated early next year.

"In Meghalaya, BJP will take its tally from two at present to form a government that will further the welfare policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the state," Sarma, who is seen as BJP's pointsman in the Northeast, said.

H M Shangpliang, who quit TMC and joined BJP said that the BJP was growing very rapidly in Meghalaya and offered the hope for a change in the state. "People of the state are impressed by the developmental politics of the BJP and PM Narendra Modi. Meghalaya needs a change and that change was possible only through the hands of our PM Modi."