Shillong, August 27: With Purno A Sangma out of the way, the Meghalaya unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is looking forward to forging a grand pre-poll alliance with the Congress, Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Party (KHNAM) and Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP). Former NCP president and Rajya Sabha MP Robert Kharshiing- who is now the party’s central observer for north eastern region- said he will be discussing this issue with the party leaders of the three parties in the State. As the NCP is a coalition partner of the Congress in the centre and also had a pre-poll alliance, forging an alliance between the Congress and NCP in the State should not be a problem. All these years, the NCP and Congress in Meghalaya could not work together because PA Sangma had a soured relationship with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Now with Sangma joining the National People’s Party (NPP), the NCP is looking forward to take forward the arrangement the two parties had in the last general election in Meghalaya too. Speaking to Oh! Meghalaya at his Laitumkhrah residence, Kharshiing said, “Now road is clear for the pre poll alliance between Congress, NCP, HSPDP and KHNAM. I am ruling out UDP as they earlier had tied up with NCP who now have merged with the NPP.” He, however, said if the UDP wants to join the alliance, it is most welcomed. Talking about the arrangement of government formation if the alliance comes to power, Kharshiing said the Congress can keep the chief minister post, but the chairman of the alliance will have to be from a different party. Terming Sangma’s new political inning from the NPP as unexpected, Kharshiing said, “After his successful tenure in the national politics and also as Lok Sabha speaker, joining a regional party was quite unexpected.” He also said that he will be trying to bring back all the twelve NCP legislators who had crossed over to the NPP.- By Suraj Joshi
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