NPP will contest alone in the state assembly election, no special stand with BJP: Meghalaya CM

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma today remarked that the National People’s Party (NPP) has no special stand with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and that it will fight elections on their own accord.

"We have always contested the election alone. We never had any alliance with any other party in any of the states. There is neither a special policy for our state right now nor a special stand with the BJP. This is our general policy with all states and with all political parties. The NPP always fights elections on its own." Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma said today during the distribution of financial assistance to eligible youth groups under the Youth Engagement through Empowered Youth Organisations (YESS) initiative, on the occasion of International Youth Day.

Reacting to the changing political scenario in every region Meghalaya CM further says, "I am not aware about the political scenario in Bihar. There must be something happening in Bihar. But if you go the other way in Maharashtra the Shiv Sena and BJP are together and have got back their alliance again. From that angle some have left while few others have come back also. Therefore this kind of thing happens based on the local politics of that particular state and hence one cannot draw conclusions from the overall political scenario in the state."

On being questioned whether the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is progressing in the north east, he said, "If taking away some MLAs from another political party is progress then they have progressed but one also needs to see that almost 30-40 percent of them who joined TMC 6 months back are already leaving TMC now. Today already 5 or 6 have already started talking about different political parties. So it really depends on your word of progress. But yes in politics there will never be a vacuum and if there is space and vacuum in a system then a party can take that space. The TMC has been trying to take the space of the opposition where the congress is disintegrated. But in the process of disintegration Congress and TMC were not able to take full advantage of the situation so they have met certain progress in terms of few steps forward and they have also taken few steps back. So the real taste of the political situation will be 2023 elections.”

Talking about unemployment in Meghalaya, CM said that to solve the problems of unemployment there is a solution and that can be achieved through entrepreneurship. Until the youth will not take interest in business, we can't give importance to adding value to the resources for the small industries and the unemployment will not be solved. "The government has started a big program called the Prime Meghalaya program where entrepreneurs will be helped. Today you can see many entrepreneurs have come. Like this, every year there is competition between them where thousands of entrepreneurs participate and we support them financially, provide loans with interest and also help to contact them with big institutes. So in these few years we are able to see many companies have started in different sectors especially in agro-based sector and tourism sector in Meghalaya through which many people have been employed. And I believe if we continue this policy we can solve the unemployment problem,"

Sangma today distributed financial assistance to eligible youth groups under the Youth Engagement through Empowered Youth Organisations (YESS) initiative, on the occasion of International Youth Day. An amount of nearly Rs 30 lakhs was distributed among 61 groups which qualified under the initiative and are committed towards youth development and empowerment. Another Rs 3 lakhs cash reward was extended to 61 medalists in various sports events held in the state. A total of 2,000 youth from across different districts of Garo Hills gathered at Tura, Government College Ground to celebrate the occasion.