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NCP in Meghalaya against alliance with Congress

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI Jan. 3. The Nationalist Congress Party's declaration that it will consider a tie-up with the National Democratic Alliance may have its origin in the December 15 defection by its MLAs in Meghalaya to the Congress-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance Government, sources here said.

The NCP's leadership in Meghalaya, shocked by the defection of six of its 14 MLAs, did not want any truck with the Congress in the next elections.

They reportedly wrote to the party chief Sharad Pawar that the NCP should consider a tie-up with the BJP-led NDA when working out its strategy. It is not clear if the letter was from P.A. Sangma, a co-founder of the NCP. Mr. Sangma is known to be outraged at the turn of events in his State and was not in favour of a partnership with the Congress.

The sources said it was not a coincidence that the defections ``were induced'' by the Congress just a day before the Lok Sabha approved the 97th Constitution Amendment Bill on December 16.

All the six who deserted the NCP were sworn in Ministers. The bill stipulated that defectors cannot enjoy an office of profit till they are re-elected. The amendment got the President's assent yesterday. With the defections, the strength of Meghalaya's ruling coalition has gone up to 49 in the 60-member Assembly.

Mr. Pawar told yesterday that the views of the party's leaders in the North-East could not be ignored. ``The least that can be done is discuss it at the next Working Committee meeting of the NCP on January 25 at New Delhi.''

It is felt that if Mr. Pawar had not aired his view yesterday that an alliance with the NDA was one of the possibilities, there may have been more departures from the NCP, especially in Meghalaya. Mr. Pawar had also spoken of a dilemma in Kerala, where the NCP is in direct confrontation with Congress and was allied with the Left parties.

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