Decision on return to NCP after Xmas: Sangma

Sangma had quit the NCP just before the parliamentary polls earlier this yr, as the party decided to ally with the Cong.

Former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma on Friday said the decision on rejoining the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) would be taken after the Christmas celebrations.

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"I am going back to Delhi after Christmas. Let's see there," he said when asked about his political plans.

The Nationalist Trinamool Congress (NTC) MP was now celebrating Christmas in home town Tura in Meghalaya's West Garo Hills district.

Earlier on December 6, Sangma said he would decide by the end of the month on his re-entry to NCP, as staying in the NDA was getting "difficult" after the BJP "returned to the Hindutva fold" following the poll debacle.

He had then said that although he did not receive any "formal invitation" from the NCP, the party's General Secretary Tariq Anwar made a public statement welcoming Sangma's re-entry to the Sharad Pawar-led party.

Sangma had quit the NCP just before the parliamentary polls earlier this year, as the Pawar-led group decided to ally with the Congress.

He then merged his faction with the Trinamool Congress after the Kolkata-based party changed its nomenclature to Nationalist Trinamool Congress. Sangma won the Tura Lok Sabha seat for the eight time in a row as an NTC member.

Of late, the Tura MP was inching towards NCP as his son Conrad Sangma was poised to enter electoral politics.