I and my family have benefited immensely from NCP: Sangma

NCP leader P A Sangma on Friday said he and his family members had benefited immensely by keeping his party a separate entity from the Congress.

NCP leader P A Sangma on Friday said he and his family members had benefited immensely by keeping his party a separate entity from the Congress.

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“It is record of a sort that I and two of my sons are MLAs in Meghalaya and my daughter a Union Minister because of NCP. My family members would not have got the chance to grow if we were in Congress,” he told a press conference here.

“Why should we not keep our party a separate entity?” he asked.

Sangma was asked about the rationale behind the NCP continuing as a separate party when he had declared that the issue of foreign nationality of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, on which a parting of ways took place 11 years ago, was no longer relevant and NCP was an ally of the Congress at the Centre and in Maharastra.

He said 48 parties were formed out of the Congress, but of them only the NCP existed as a national party.

“It requires 6 per cent votes in four states for a party to get recognition as a national party. Out of 700 parties in the country, only five parties including NCP are recognised as national parties.”

Sangma, who once joined the Trinamool Congress but soon returned to the NCP, said not even the TC was a national party.