The Meghalaya assembly elections are just a month away. Chief minister and National People’s Party (NPP) president Conrad Sangma in an exclusive conversation with News18 took an “outsider" jibe at the Trinamool Congress, adding that its candidates are in touch with other political parties. He was also non-committal on the possibility of joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party again. Edited excerpts:
How’s the feeling?
You know I have always considered elections to be tough, elections are always difficult. This should be kept in mind as a political worker and leader of a party. So while the overall feeling is very positive, we have to work hard. We are working hard, we are not underestimating anyone. With the work that we have done and the hard work we are still doing, I am sure the people of Meghalaya will give us another chance.
Who are you fighting: BJP, TMC, Congress, or UDP? Your opposition says you will end up shaking hands with the BJP. Is this only for show?
The fact that we are fighting now and later will take BJP’s help…let’s accept that, yes, we were in coalition and are now fighting. Let’s take it this way that fighting elections and forming the government are two different chapters. Elections are fought on ideology, you fight on what you believe, you go to the people, you show them your vision, and you wait for people to vote. In the past, we have seen fractured mandates, when this comes, it’s clear that the ideology you are presenting is not being accepted in full by the people. Then as politicians, we have to figure out what best option we can give to the people. So once the result comes out, we will think about this second chapter.
We are a small state, the fight is more on individuals. There is no one set of political parties we are fighting, in some places we are fighting BJP, and in some, we are fighting TMC, UDP. In every constituency, the fight is between NPP and others.
Is it a friendly fight with BJP?
No question of a friendly fight with BJP. There are some constituencies where the fight is only between BJP and NPP. This is not at all a friendly fight.
What’s your take on TMC? Why have you said they are outsiders? Mukul Sangma is from Meghalaya.
I have said they are outsiders because that is what they said in Bengal about BJP. Based on that logic, the TMC is an outsider party. I have applied the same logic to Meghalaya. NPP is a party from Meghalaya and we are running a coalition government.
Mukul Sangma is from Meghalaya.
So there were BJP Bengal leaders too, but the party is apparently an outside party. I am again stressing that I have used the same point. People who joined TMC have already started to leave TMC. Two MLAs have joined NPP, one joined BJP, and another joined UDP. The TMC started off with 12 but now they are down to 5, so already people are leaving because they have realised that they cannot go to the people with the TMC symbol. Now only people who are left are also keeping in touch with people of other political parties. They have already spoken to other political parties and made arrangements in case they win.
Do you mean to say that they are keeping in touch with you and BJP?
I am not saying that they are keeping in touch with me or BJP. This statement is doing the rounds in the market. If you come here and ask anyone you will get the feeling.
Mukul Sangma has shown that they are very confident of an absolute majority…
They will definitely have to show, otherwise from where will he build up confidence for their workers? We can show anything but showing something and doing it on the ground is different. The fact is opposition at ground level is hugely divided. The Congress that won 21 seats is now at zero. The TMC had 12 and is down to 5 MLAs. These are clear indications that show the opposition is unable to keep their flock together. There is division and the public is seeing all this. Why will the public vote for them? They will not be able to come together and form the government. That sense is there in the people.
Is a fragmented opposition giving you an edge?
It definitely gives us an edge, but that does not mean that we will sit with that. Elections are tough always and we are putting in hard work. It definitely gives us an edge.
The TMC said the border agreement will be revoked; do you think the Mukroh incident is an issue?
Very unfortunate that Dr Mukul Sangma and TMC want to revoke the border agreement because they had the opportunity to do it for so many years; multiple incidents keep happening, and they did nothing. The people living there in a lot of tension because there is no clarity. The fact that they want to revoke clearly shows that TMC is not interested in solving the border issue.
The TMC said that you signed the MoU in a hurry.
We started this work for more than a year, and we visited more than 27 times. What were they doing in all these years? We had a large number of public hearings, based on the opinion and will of the people whose decisions have been made. The TMC has not done their homework properly, that’s clear. The Mukroh incident was unfortunate, this was unprovoked. We asked the Assam government clearly to take steps. These situations are complex and complicated. These problems took place because of the border dispute. We will take people into confidence and resolve the problem.
Is the election tougher this time?
I am clear in my approach, we will contest like this is our first election. We may have done a lot of work, and we have met up to people’s expectations, but we will take up this election very seriously. We can never take elections easy.
What type of a government will it be: a clear majority one or supported by the BJP?
We are sending a clear majority government of NPP, but we are not claiming it as it has not happened for the last 50 years. The only time it happened was in 1972. There’s been no single-party government for long. In case a single-party majority does not happen, we will look at all options. We are sure we will do far far better than we did last time.
Why will people vote for Conrad Sangma?
In the past 5 years, we have done so much work, that says it all. If I start giving references to those works, it will not end. We have given development and stability.
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