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Will decide in a month on exiting Meghalaya’s ruling coalition, says BJP leader
A Meghalaya BJP leader said the party decided in July to exit the ruling coalition but hadn’t implemented the decision for certain unspecified reasons
SHILLONG: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will decide within a month if its two legislators in the 60-member assembly will continue to be part of the Conrad Sangma-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance, BJP vice president and Meghalaya In-charge Chuba Ao has said.
“We are also planning (to take a decision) within one month on whether we will do so, we may withdraw support (to the MDA government). Discussion is going on. We will discuss it again with the national president,” he told reporters on Saturday after a party meeting.
To be sure, the Sangma government is comfortably placed in the assembly and has the support of 46 of the 60 legislators.
The statement comes against the backdrop of the arrest of BJP leader Bernard R Marak and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s announcement over the last few weeks that his party will contest next year’s state polls on its own. Sangma had then insisted that the National People’s Party (NPP) has never had a pre-poll alliance with any party since an election is about the “ideology and identity” of the party.
A BJP leader said party leaders decided to walk out of the coalition government at a meeting in July but had not implemented it. He didn’t give any reasons for the delay. It is not clear if the BJP decision to defer the move is linked to the police action against Bernard R Marak, councillor of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council.
Meghalaya BJP vice president Bernard Marak was taken into custody in Hapur district in Uttar Pradesh on charges of running a sex racket at his farmhouse in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills district. More than 70 people were arrested during a raid at his farmhouse on July 22 and six minors including four boys were allegedly rescued.
Marak was arrested again on August 10 under the Explosive Substances Act after 35 gelatine sticks and 100 detonators, were seized from the BJP leader’s farmhouse. On September 1, he was arrested again on charges of extorting money from traders leading to a rise in prices of certain food items.
Senior BJP legislator Alexander Laloo Hek, however, said it was “not prudent to make any observations or assumptions” in Marak’s case since the matter was “under the judicial process”.
The BJP’s Meghalaya unit chief Ernest Mawrie, however, has spoken in defence of Marak, who is considered a contender for the party ticket from the South Tura seat, presently held by chief minister Sangma.
BJP state executive member Pawan Sharma too criticised the government over Marak’s case and declared that “we shall explore the legal route to seek an independent inquiry”.
