SHILLONG:
The leadership of the National People’s Party (NPP) will be holding an emergency meeting on February 2 evening to discuss the fate of Ranikor constituency following the sudden exit of party candidate Martin M Danggo, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on February 1.
Deputy Chief Minister and senior party leader, Prestone Tynsong, said that he was shocked and surprised over the hurried manner in which Danggo exited NPP to join the saffron party.
“Yes, we were shocked but we can’t help it; it is up to him to decide. But we will take a call this evening – whether or not to put up another candidate from Ranikor,” Tynsong told media persons.
When asked about BJP poaching NPP candidates, Tynsong said, “This is politics. We can’t say much about that. But it all depends on the person – the moment you decide to leave any party, you need to do research and then only join the party.”
Criticising Danggo’s habit of jumping ships, the NPP leader said, “He left Congress to join NPP and midway, he left us to rejoin Congress and no sooner, he rejoined us. And now, just before the elections, he joined the BJP. I really don’t know what made him join the BJP at the last minute.”
Taking a dig at the BJP for threatening to leave the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government on several occasions over several issues, Tynsong said, “Yes, I am shocked to see them holding on to the government. In the past four years, they said nothing about misgovernance or corruption but in the last four to five months, we see them levelling several corruption charges against the government.”
Terming the allegations as baseless, Tynsong said the people are smart and wise to judge and review the government’s performance in the past five years.
“During elections, allegations will always be there and all are baseless. But let me tell you – in my political career, I have never seen any other government perform as well as the MDA,” Tynsong claimed.
Furthermore, the Deputy CM exuded confidence in NPP forming the government on its own, this time around. “Our focus is very clear. We are going to cross the 34 seats mark,” he added.