Sangma denies Lapang met BJP leaders

SHILLONG, JUNE 2: Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma flatly rejected the insinuation that he had written to the AICC high command accusing that MPCC president DD Lapang and three cabinet ministers met BJP leaders. He said, “ I have not made such accusation in the letter to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in the letter.”

Yesterday an NDTV report claimed that Sangma had alleged Lapang and two cabinet ministers had meetings with BJP leaders in a letter written to the Congress high command apprising them of the attempt being made by the BJP to topple his government.

Sangma, however, admitted that he had mention about the BJP attempt to destablise his government.

Sangma told reporters communication between the government and the AICC is a routine affair as he claimed that the actual content of the letter was informing about the ‘stability of his government’.

“I had only informed them (AICC) about the stability of the government and in fact the communication is a routine exercise,” Sangma told reporters on Thursday.

Claiming that the NDTV did not have the copy of the letter that was sent to the AICC, he said, “From the way they carried the news, it shows that they don’t have the copy but were able to sensationalize the news.”

He said if the news channel had the letter, they would have carried the right content that was in the letter.”

The recent humiliating defeat of the Congress in the Tura Lok Sabha bye-election triggered the demand for change of leadership by the dissident legislators including ministers.

However Sangma denied that there was such a demand and claimed, “There has been no such demand.”

Sangma hinted that soon he will call the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) get-together but refused to divulge of a possible reshuffling of his cabinet.

Admitting there are issues which needs to be ironed out, the chief minister said, “But these are minor issues and we have a time-tested mechanism to deal with them,” adding “Despite this, sometimes when such issues tend to go out of the four walls of the party, other political parties will naturally take the advantage.”-By Our Reporter