SHILLONG, Nov 20: National People’s Party (NPP) national president and chief minister Conrad K Sangma said the opposition All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) is building castles in the air as they are not ready to accept the reality that it will take time for them to be acceptable in Meghalaya and other states in the North East region.
Sangma said the political scenario in the North East and in Meghalaya especially in the current situation, TMC is a party which has just come in a way though there were some instances in the past that they have come in and they were there but they could not sustain and they could not build the organization.
“Hence, even today in this particular (upcoming) election, the party is not as acceptable as they think they are and the organization will take a lot of time to build up. Hence, given these situations, given the fact that the opposition is broken four-five pieces, given the fact that TMC is an organization which is new and will take time to get acceptability in the NE, keeping all these factors in mind, it will be wrong to conclude for them or for anybody to say that they are going to be forming the government.”
“I think they should accept the reality, they should see where they stand, that is the first thing. For any organization to improve is to first accept where they are and then say look we need to workout and strengthen ourselves. But the fact that they are already building castles in the air shows that they don’t know what is the reality and they are not able to build up the organization the way they want to and so I don’t think that the statements given by them have any stronghold,” he stated.
The chief minister was reacting to the claim made by the AITC that they will form the new government in Meghalaya.
Stating that the opposition in Meghalaya is divided, Sangma said the Congress had 17 MLAs but the Congress broke into two pieces and from that came out the TMC.
“So opposition is already divided. The trust and the confidence of the people that united opposition is not there is already making a doubt in the people’s mind on whether this opposition can actually perform or not as they are not united anymore they have broken into half,” he added.
Alleging that the TMC is further broken into another half within themselves, the NPP chief said, “Many TMC MLAs are either joining the NPP or other political parties. That will happen soon, I don’t want to talk about it now.”
“So TMC is going to be further broken. So I don’t know if that is a sign of them getting stronger or them getting weaker; that I leave it to you to decide and for people to decide,” he asserted.
Sangma however concluded that he does not take any opponent lightly and said, “Nonetheless, as a political leader and as a president of my party and as chief minister of the state, I have always maintained that I don’t take any opposition lightly, I don’t take any opponent lightly, I have always believed that when we fight we have to give our best…”
