SHILLONG:
The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) has called the National People’s Party (NPP) “autocratic” for ruling the state in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The national general secretary of the party, Abhishek Banerjee, who was visiting Assam on May 11, said that in the upcoming Assembly election, the party will oust the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) in the state.
“The AITC has become the primary opposition in Meghalaya. Next year, we will fight the state elections in Meghalaya and Tripura with all our strength and will defeat the autocratic forces, be it Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and NPP in Meghalaya or the BJP in Tripura,” said Banerjee, addressing party workers for the first time in neighbouring Assam.
He further added that the party’s goal is to see the AITC is growing as an active political participant across the eight Northeastern states.
Debunking the “myth” of BJP’s “achhe din”, the AITC general secretary said, “The BJP government is busy making movies tax free, and hiking petrol prices. They are even hiking the price of essential medicines.”
Training guns at the BJP, Banerjee urged Northeastern states to form their own “unity in diversity” to defeat the saffron party. “Take off your spectacles of communalism, you will see that India is in danger,” he said.
Earlier on April 15, one of the party’s spokespersons had said that Banerjee will be visiting Meghalaya on May 3 and hold organizational meetings with the party’s leaders in the state.
The AITC became the principal opposition in the state after 12 Congress legislators of 17, including former chief minister Mukul Sangma, defected to the Mamata Banerjee-led party in November last year.