The former Lok Sabha speaker reveals that the slogan of the NCP is ‘development for peace and not peace for development.

North East News Agency

Without wasting any time after rejoining Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), former Lok Sabha speaker Purno A Sangma has taken up the task of strengthening the party stronger in the North-East region.  He has separate prescriptions for separate states.

It may be mentioned here that before the last general elections Mr. Sangma left NCP and joined Trinamul Congress. He was elected to Lok sabha from Tura Parliamentary constituency of Meghalaya as a Tranamul candidate.

While in case of Manipur, Mr. Sangma coined a new slogan ‘development for peace’, in Assam his plan is to form an alliance with like-minded secular parties against the Congress. Though NCP is a major partner of the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre, Mr. Sangma sees no wrong in joining hands with Congress-baiters in the states. “You cannot have a universal approach on alliance with the Congress Party. In Congress-ruled Meghalaya, NCP is in opposition while in Arunachal Pradesh NCP and Congress is in alliance,” he clarifies.

In recent times, few leaders of repute joined NCP in Manipur. Prominent among them is Radha Binod Koijam. Manipur unit of the Trinamul Congress has also merged with the NCP led by its president S Tiken. Former MPCC president and Finance Minister L Lalit have also joined the NCP. Encouraged by the success of attracting heavy weights towards the party, Mr. Sangma was optimistic of turning NCP as one of the most powerful political parries in Manipur within the next six months.

“In the coming months, the NCP will emerge as the most powerful political party in Manipur, in terms of quality leadership as well as the support of the people,” declared Mr. Sangma during a recent trip to Imphal along with another stalwart of the party Tariq Anwar.

The former Lok Sabha speaker revealed that the slogan of the NCP is ‘development for peace and not peace for development. “Development for peace is our slogan,” he said adding “development will bring a lasting peace in the region. So our main objective is to strengthen the party,” he said. It has been done to woo the common people. Mr. Sangma is confident that people of Manipur would opt for NCP in the coming Assembly elections as they have already tried and tasted other parties such as Congress and BJP. “NCP Is the only alternative,” he claimed. Referring to rich sporting traditions of Manipuir, Mr. Sangma said that “It is only through sports that the people of the country can unite and hence the NCP would place top priority on sports.” He, however, was not forthcoming on the prospects of alliance with other political parties during the forthcoming Assembly elections

Regarding Assam, Mr. Sangma confessed that NCP has held talks with Prafulla Kumar Mahanta’s AGP (P) and UDF, the new minority party. Discussion is still at the exploratory stage. “We have not decided on who will be our allies including the CPI, CPI-M,” he said. His prediction for Assam is that no party would get absolute majority in the State.

Purno Sangma gave enough indication that NCP would not join hands with Congress in Assam. He asserted that people were looking   for an alternative to Congress Party and they are fed up with the Congress rule. They find NCP as an alternative to Congress rule, Mr. Sangma claimed. Though Mr. Sangma was ready with his  remarks       on any subject regarding  North-East, however the former speaker was non-committal on MBOSE fiasco.

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