Shillong, March 2: The Voice of the People Party (VPP) on Thursday said it is not ready to work with the National People’s Party (NPP) on the ground that too many corruption charges are there against it during the past five years.
The newly floated party also maintained that a government led by the regional force should be formed in the state.
After being re-elected as Nongkrem MLA, VPP chief Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit told reporters that the question of talking with the NPP for government formation does not arise since his party is not at all interested to work with them. “Under no circumstances we will work with the NPP,” Basaiawmoit said.
The VPP has managed to win 4 out of 59 Assembly seats.
When asked the reason behind the anti-NPP stand, the VPP chief said that corruption charges against the NPP were very high during the past five years when they were leading the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government.
“So how will you expect us to work with such a party which has so many allegations of corruption and till now there has been no investigation into these allegations that are satisfactory to the people of the state,” Basaiawmoit said.
Stating that a coalition government will be formed in the state, the VPP leader however said, “We will see which are the groups or partners which need our support and, as it is, we have already prepared certain conditions that we would like to put forth to any party which wants to work with the VPP.”
“If there is a way, our aim is to have a government which will be led by a regional party,” he further asserted.
On the allegation that VPP has been funded by the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), Basaiawmoit said, “This is just election propaganda which has come out from the dirty tricks department of the established parties in the state.”
According to him, the support extended by the people to the VPP in a short span of time only shows that they are desperate for a change in the state.
As far as the Sohiong seat is concerned, where election has been adjourned following the demise of former home minister and UDP candidate late HDR Lyngdoh, Basaiawmoit said the party will see if the rules allow it to field a candidate.
