The National People’s Party, which aims to be the alternative to the Congress and ally Bharatiya Janata Party in the northeast, launched its unit in Assam on Wednesday with the plan to contest all 14 Lok Sabha seats in the State.
The launch coincided with the completion of a year of the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government in Meghalaya, where the BJP is a minor partner.
“We are ready to contest 25 seats (across the eight Northeastern States). Being with the National Democratic Alliance does not stop us from contesting elections,” NPP president and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma said after inaugurating the party office in Guwahati.
6th N-E State
Assam is the sixth Northastern State where the NPP has entered. The party has 20 MLAs in Meghalaya, five in Arunachal Pradesh, four in Manipur, and two in Nagaland. It is a minor ruling partner of BJP in Manipur and Nagaland.
The NPP’s entry in Assam follows the decision of BJP’s ally Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Tripura.
In Assam, the Asom Gana Parishad had walked out of the BJP-led alliance government in January following differences on the issue of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
However, the NPP stole the thunder from AGP by mobilising support against the Bill with Mr. Sangma cashing in on popular sentiments to emerge as the “tallest leader” of the Northeast.
“What the region needs is a party that can bring all the people together on a common platform and make their voices strong enough for Delhi not to ignore. NPP was formed with this goal, and in the last four years, we have spread to all corners of the region,” Mr. Sangma said.
He took a dig at the BJP’s ‘Act East Policy’ and its earlier avatar ‘Look East Policy’ during the Congress rule. “Whether it is ‘Look or Act’, we will have to help ourselves. No one else will ‘Look or Act’ for us,” he said.
The Assam unit of National People’s Party is headed by retired IPS officer Dilip Kumar Bora.
