NPP, UDP & TMC Are 'Puppets Of BJP', Meghalaya Poll Will Be 'Watershed Election' For Congress: Jairam

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh claimed that BJP "puppets" NPP and UDP have been joined by a third "puppet", "TMC or JMP (Judas Mukul Party)".

Congress Leader Jairam Ramesh said Meghalaya means abode of clouds, but "the clouds are not rain-bearing ones but of corruption, unemployment and power cuts".

Source : PTI

New Delhi: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, on Saturday, claimed that the Conrad K Sangma-led National People's Party (NPP), the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are the “puppets” of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) in poll-bound Meghalaya.

Ramesh, was in the state to release the party's manifesto for the February 27 assembly elections. During the event, he said, Meghalaya means abode of clouds, but "the clouds are not rain-bearing ones but of corruption, unemployment and power cuts".

“The Congress is fighting against the cloud of corruption and unemployment, and the destruction of Meghalaya's identity and finally the cloud of the unholy alliance – BJP, NPP, UDP, TMC – which are all claiming that they are fighting the election independently..." the former union minister said, as quoted by news agency PTI.

He also said that the Meghalaya poll will be a "watershed election" for the Congress, stressing that 47 of its 60 candidates are below the age of 45. He claimed that this has never happened before in any state and said this decision helped bring youth to the fore. 

The senior Congress party leader asserted that "there are puppets of the BJP in different states". He claimed that BJP puppets NPP and UDP have been joined by a third puppet, "TMC or JMP (Judas Mukul Party)".

"Here (in Meghalaya) there is one puppet called the NPP, there is another puppet called the UDP and now there is a new one, a third puppet that has come into the Meghalaya politics, TMC or JMP (Judas Mukul Party)," he claimed.

"These are all part of the BJP's game plan. The NPP is the BJP's A-team, the UDP is the B-team and the TMC or JMP is C-team here," Ramesh alleged. He noted that allies of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance are independently contesting the upcoming assembly elections and claimed that "the NPP, the UDP and the BJP are all part and parcel of the same package".

In 2021, the leader of the opposition and former chief minister Mukul Sangma, ex-Assembly speaker Charles Pyngrope and 10 other Congress legislators join the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC. 

The Congress suffered a major loss in recent years as none of its 17 MLAs who were elected in 2018 is with the party. While 12 of them joined the Trinamool Congress in 2021, the remaining five are contesting on NPP and UDP tickets. He called these leaders who left Congress, as the "Judas". 

As per PTI, Ramesh termed their desertion “good riddance”, he said their commitment to the values of the Congress and its ideology was "not very strong".

He said that the desertion created space for many youngsters for the first time. He said that 10 out of the 60 nominees are women, and Ramesh said that no other party in the state has given such representation to women. 

Ramesh then added, “One advantage of such desertion is that they create vacancies and we have so many youngsters for the first time. Ten out of the 60 nominees are women. No other political party in Meghalaya has given women such a representation".