Party in talks for pre-poll alliance

From A Correspondent

Shillong, Dec 9: The BJP is in talks with like-minded political parties for a pre-poll alliance in Meghalaya for the Assembly polls scheduled in February-March 2018. When asked if the party was planning to contest from all the 60 seats, BJP general secretary in-charge of North-eastern States Ram Madhav said in the fil situation, if the party does not have any alliance with any political party then it will certainly contest in all the seats.

“The scerio for a pre-poll alliance is emerging. How it will filly culmite, I can’t say right now. But yes we are having a discussion with some political parties,” he said.

“We are preparing for both eventualities. We are talking to some parties. If no alliance is firmed up, then we will be ready to contest in all the seats,” he added.

When asked if there were talks with the tiol People’s Party (NPP), Madhav said that he does not want to discuss anything on this as of now.

It may be mentioned that the NPP’s lone Lok Sabha MP, Conrad K Sangma, is supporting the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.

NPP’s four MLAs in Manipur have all been given ministerial berth in the BJP-led government there and therefore the party is considered a tural ally of the BJP.

Earlier, both the BJP and NPP had always maintained that they are going to fight the 2018 Assembly polls on their own.

When asked how many seats the BJP was expecting to win in the forthcoming Assembly election, Madhav said the BP will be in a position to form a stable government along with its partners.