SHILLONG:
Finally, reports doing the rounds that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislators of Meghalaya are set to merge with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have turned out to be a “joke”.
Cabinet minister and BJP legislator Alexander Laloo Hek days after claiming that he and senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Mukul Sangma had met “over tea”, admitted that he had jokingly told the latter to merge the TMC with the saffron party.
“We have not discussed anything he will; jump from the TMC to the BJP. Yes, we were jokingly talking about why not come and merge with BJP. It was only a casual discussion,” the BJP legislator said.
He said that the talks were not official and there was no party-level discussion on the matter.
Hek also said that other friends told him why doesn’t he join the United Democratic Party (UDP).
He told reporters that both the MLAs met in the Assembly and not anywhere else.
The BJP MLA said that all this was said in the office chamber of the Assembly Speaker, over a cup of tea.
“Do you think we will talk about toppling the government? We have not met beyond the chamber of Assembly Speaker,” he said.
Hek also said that the reports of him being against the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) 2.0 government are totally wrong.
“The (formation of the) MDA government is the instruction which came from the central leaders (of the BJP),” he said.
The BJP leader and Cabinet minister also said that the central leaders had clearly instructed the state party unit to work with the National People’s Party (NPP)-led government under the leadership of Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma.
Pointed out that he had told Sangma that he did not want the NPP to lead the government again, Hek said he did not meet any political party but he was himself sitting in a city hotel and various politicians from the UDP, TMC and the PDF visited him and discussed the formation of a government.
“I told them very clearly that we were instructed by the national leaders of the BJP that we are going to work under the leadership of NPP and form the MDA 2.0 government,” he added.
Hek also said that there is no internal bickering in the state unit of the BJP.
“Where is the friction? Everybody is saying the same thing. We are all working together to ensure that we strengthen the BJP,” he said.