In a major boost, five legislators of the Congress party on Tuesday extended full support to the National People's Party (NPP)-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government.
The delegation led by Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Ampareen Lyngdoh also handed over the letter of support to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma at his office chamber.
"We wish to support you and the MDA to strengthen the government's arms and decision making, so as to ensure that our joint efforts will take the state forward, in the general interest of its citizens," the five legislators wrote in the letter.
Addressing media persons after the meeting, Lyngdoh said all the five legislators of Congress have unanimously decided to join the MDA government.
"You may ask what is the reasoning behind this, we are at this juncture of politics where we have to make sure that we cover each other's backs. We are elected representatives and we take along the needs and requirements of the constituencies," she said.
She informed that they also discussed several issues with the chief minister in the presence of the deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong.
These include inter-state border disputes with the state of Assam.
"We also have two MLAs in the regional committees on the inter-state boundary issue and we feel at this juncture the interest of the state and the people of our constituencies is of paramount importance," Lyngdoh said.
If the five MLAs are planning to join the NPP ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls, the CLP leader said, "We went as a CLP to support the MDA so leave it at that as speculations will not reach us anywhere. We feel as elected representatives that we have a right to do what we think is best for us the five and that is how we have come to this decision."
She added, "We expect the high command of the party to listen to us because we are the elected members, we are the ones going for elections, we are the ones feeling the brunt of this confusion."
On BJP being part of the MDA coalition government, Lyngdoh however said that they are not privy to discussion on whether the MDA is backed by anyone.
"We go as a CLP to seek justice for our constituencies, that's our politics. We have not got into that level of asking them (MDA) who are your partners. We have been out of the government for four years, we will allow this government to tell us because we have no clarity on those matters. We are not privy to any of their discussions and dialogues, we just want to see our constituencies receiving the attention they deserve," she stated.
On Congress not working together with BJP at the national level, Lyngdoh further downplayed it by saying "I don't have any idea of what you are talking about. As you have seen in the country as a whole, politics is about states and players in the state. At the end of the day, we are not engaging in any of those interpretations because we are not privy to any such information."
