Modi wave will not work: Lapang

SHILLONG, SEPT 12: The ruling Congress has ruled out that the ‘Modi wave’ will have any impact in the state of Meghalaya, which is going for fresh polls next year.

“I don’t see much as it (Modi wave) will not work here,” Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief DD Lapang told reporters here on Tuesday.

He was reacting to a query whether the proposed visits of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the state will be a threat to the Congress party in the upcoming 2018 assembly elections.

Earlier, the BJP had indicated that Modi will be one of the main star campaigners for the candidates of the party in the state.

The veteran Congress leader further claimed that the ruling party do not see the opposition political parties as its “strong opponent” in the upcoming elections.

“When I look at the past record (including 2013 elections), there is none,” Lapang said while adding that it is too early to say now how many seats they will be able to score this time.

While the ruling Congress is having 30 MLAs in the 60-member House, the opposition political parties like the United Democratic Party (UDP) is with only eight MLAs, Hill State People Democratic Party (HSPDP) with 4 and National People’s Party (NPP) with 2 MLAs.

Almost all the independent MLAs except for two are also supporting the Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA-II) state government.

On the claim by the NPP, an ally of the BJP at the Centre, that it would be playing a big role in the change of government in the state come 2018 elections, Lapang however said that still the Congress is not seeing the NPP as a threat at all as it is yet to know who the NPP is.

“I am not going to the judge on the performance of other parties but I talk from the records in the past which indicated that the Congress is always the single-largest party, so where is the scope of being challenge,” he said.

The MPCC chief also said that there is no guarantee for the UDP as well whether they will be able to increase the number of seats or not.

“If many regional parties are coming up and are all against the Congress, it means that the Congress is the tallest,” he said.