: After the Bharatiya Janata Party, a regional ally has stepped up the attack on the Conrad K. Sangma-led National People’s Party (NPP) in Meghalaya.
The unhappiness of the United Democratic Party (UDP) with the NPP’s “tendency to take credit for all good things done since 2018” has assumed significance ahead of the Assembly elections in the State. The polls are scheduled by February 2023.
“There should be some ethics in politics, especially in a coalition government,” UDP general secretary Jemino Mawthoh told journalists in State capital Shillong a few days ago.
He said it was not right on the part of the NPP to take credit even for the “good work” done by departments handled by ministers from other parties.
With eight MLAs, the UDP is the largest of four allies of the NPP excluding seven independent legislators. The NPP has 23 legislators in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance that has a total of 46 MLAs in the 60-member House.
The UDP has also been vocal against the NPP for a notification making the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, applicable in the tribal areas. The areas administered by the autonomous district councils were earlier exempted from these codes.
The People’s Democratic Front, another regional ally of the NPP, had targeted Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong over the issue of providing fertilisers to farmers. Mr Tynsong is a senior NPP leader.
The discordant notes within the ruling coalition in Meghalaya have sharpened since the BJP threatened to pull out of the alliance. More than a week ago, the BJP’s Meghalaya in-charge, M. Chuba Ao said his party was considering withdrawing support to the NPP.
Last week, State BJP president Ernest Mawrie and Alexander Laloo Hek, who was dropped from the NPP-led government in July 2021, reiterated their party’s decision to pull out.
The BJP has been accusing the NPP of large-scale corruption and turning a blind eye to illegal rat-hole coal mining and transportation.
