Need to finish internal work before leaving Meghalaya Democratic Alliance: BJP

A month after the BJP said that they will walk out of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) in the Northeastern state, the party’s in-charge of the state M Chuba Ao said that there is some internal work the party needs to finish before they walk out of the government.

The BJP has two MLAs as part of the government.

“The split is on the cards, and our legislators and supporters are with us on the decision, but we will have to sort out some internal issues before we walk out of the government,” Ao said.

The relationship between the Conrad Sangma-led National People’s Party (NPP) and the saffron party soured after BJP vice president Bernard Marak was arrested from Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur in July on charges of running a sex racket, and five children were rescued from one of his properties.

Some of the BJP leaders, including state president Earnest Mawrie, have stood in support of Marak and demanded an independent inquiry.

A leader from the NPP, not wishing to be named, said that no such intent was communicated to Sangma during his meeting with BJP president J P Nadda last week.

There are speculations that the split is imminent. BJP leaders from the state said that they had communicated to the central leadership that this is the best time to walk out of the alliance. Last week, members of the state executive committee and the core committee sent word to the party’s senior leaders in Delhi.

In early September, Ao had declared in a public event that the BJP will walk out of the government within a month. In reply, Sangma shot back at the state leaders and said that these utterances are personal opinions, and no national leader has been in touch with him.

The MDA government is a coalition of six parties, including NPP which won 20 of the Assembly’s 60 seats, United Democratic Party (8 seats), People's Democratic Front (4 seats), Hill State People's Democratic Party (2 seats) and seven Independents.

The Congress had emerged as the single largest party, winning 21 seats. But, former Congress CM Mukul Sangma walked out of Congress with 12 MLAs to form a state unit of the Trinamool Congress. While two MLAs of Congress passed away, five MLAs later joined the NPP.

The state heads to the polls in March 2023.