BJP to take disciplinary action against Meghalaya leaders who quit over beef row

Two leaders of the Garo Hills region resigned after they announced on social media that they would celebrate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three years in office by organising a “bitchi-beef” party.

The BJP on Tuesday said the two party leaders from Meghalaya’s Garo Hills region, who resigned protesting the Centre’s notification on cattle, were “ticket aspirants” against whom “disciplinary proceedings” are on.

The BJP said the two leaders were trying to “sabotage” the 2018 state assembly elections.(HT File Photo)

The party also said the two leaders were trying to “sabotage” the 2018 state assembly elections.

The two leaders of the Garo Hills region put in their papers in less than a week after they announced on social media that they would celebrate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three years in office by organising a “bitchi-beef” party.

“Bitchi” is a local brew usually shared during festivals among the Garo tribals in western Meghalaya.

“These people were actively working to sabotage the prospects of our potential candidates for the state elections next year. They were aspirants themselves and the party did not see them as winning candidates,” BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli told PTI.

Welcoming the resignation of North Garo Hills district president Bachu Marak, he said it was on “expected” lines since disciplinary action against him was in the process.

Last week, West Garo Hills district president Bernard Rimpu Marak, was asked to put in his papers, hours after he posted on his Facebook page an announcement of a “bitchi-beef” party to celebrate Modi’s term in office.

The BJP leader said party reorganisation at the district- level would be on to replace these two leaders.

He claimed the ruling Congress was trying to “communalise the agenda with a false and malicious untruth” about the party’s plan to impose beef ban in Meghalaya.

“Nothing is farther from the truth since under our constitutional scheme, the central government cannot encroach on the area of what a state government has to decide,” he said.

Highlighting that the BJP’s single point agenda for Meghalaya was the prime pinister’s ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’, Kohli said the party “will expose the rampant corruption, unfulfilled promises and lack of development under the Congress government of Mukul Sangma.”