AICC general secretary in-charge communications and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said the National People’s Party (NPP), the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) are puppets of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Ramesh said that the Congress is fighting against the political puppets of the BJP.
“There is one puppet master who sits in Delhi and there are puppets in different states. Here there is one puppet called the NPP, there is another puppet called the UDP and now there is a new, third puppet that has come into Meghalaya politics TMC or JMP (Judas Mukul Party).”
The MP said, “These are all part of the BKP’s game plan. NPP is BJP’s A-team, UDP is BJP’s B-team and TMC or JMP is BJP’s C-team here…Congress is fighting a three-party or four-party alliance led by the BJP.”
Stating that the BJP may not have electoral presence but it has other presence, he said, “You know what I mean in spite of the demonetization there is a lot of monetization that takes place, thanks to the BJP.”
The Congress leader alleged that the alliance partners of the MDA have taken a temporary divorce for the purpose of elections and are claiming to be fighting as independent parties.
“But let nobody be fooled as the NPP, the UDP and the BJP are all part and parcel of the same package,” he said while further asserting “The Congress is fighting the cloud of corruption, the cloud of unemployment, the cloud of destruction of Meghalaya’s identity and finally the cloud of unholy alliance – BJP, NPP, UDP, TMC – who are all claiming to fight independently now but mark my words at the first opportunity they will jump into bed together.”
Ramesh said the coming elections will be a watershed election for the Congress. He said 47 out of 60 candidates are below the age of 45 and this has never happened before in any state but it has happened in Meghalaya and this is bringing the youth to the fore.
He also termed the former leaders as ‘Judas’ . “One advantage of the Judas leaving our party is that they create vacancies and we have youngsters for the first time. Secondly, 10 out of 60 are women. No other political party in Meghalaya has given women such a heavy representation.”
“So it is a watershed election for the Congress party. Of course we recognize that there are many people who betrayed the Congress party in the last couple of years, good riddance, their commitment to the values of the Congress and its ideology obviously is not very strong, obviously ED, CBI, Income Tax has come knocking on their doors,” he added.
Ramesh said that Meghalaya is part of the Indian Union, and is part of the Indian mainstream. Youth of Meghalaya are earning a name for themselves all over the country but there is a unique and distinctive identity to the society of Meghalaya that only the Congress can protect.
“On the one side you have sets of parties who will dictate what the identity of Meghalaya is from Nagpur or from Delhi or you have another political party which will dictate what is good for Meghalaya from Kolkata, it is only the Congress party which will dictate from Shillong, from Meghalaya not only dictate but it will determine in the state,” he added