Manipur BJP president A Sharda Devi continues to deflect the issue of BJP MLAs who were part of the ‘separate administration’ demand.
Mention may be made that, out of the 10 Kuki MLAs who signed the statement making a demand for separate administration for Kukis, seven were of BJP while the other three were supporters of the BJP government.
She again claimed to media-persons on Wednesday that it is not BJP MLAs who are demanding separate administration.
Sharda was responding to media inquiries about the party’s stance on its eight MLAs, including two ministers, on the controversial demand.
However, she did not mention anything about either suspension or expulsion of the seven MLAs who had joined the bandwagon of separate administration.
Meanwhile she attributed the root cause leading to the demand for separate administration by Kuki MLAs to the previous Congress regime.
She even turned against the media-persons asking why the Congress government converted four Gram Panchayats (GPs) in Imphal West into Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) and renamed the Thangjing Hill Range to Thangting.
She asserted, “None of the Meitei MLAs from the BJP are demanding a separate administration. So, it is inaccurate to claim that BJP MLAs are demanding separate administration.”
When the media persisted in emphasising the role of BJP MLAs, Sharda replied, “Have BJP MLAs attacked or harmed the Meiteis of Manipur? Do you genuinely believe that BJP MLAs would harm the Meitei people?”
Regarding measures for resettling displaced victims, she mentioned that progress has begun in four districts. Acknowledging that restoring normalcy in Manipur would take time, she stated that the government’s maximum efforts toward resettlement were steps in the direction of achieving normalcy.
