Shillong: India’s northeastern Indian states are preparing for legislative assembly elections. One of them is Meghalaya, which is currently ruled by the Congress party.
However, the Bharatiya Janata Party that heads the federal coalition, has decided to root out the Congress from India this time. The BJP, considered the political arm of the pro-Hindu groups, seems to have dropped its development card for religion in Meghalaya, a Christian majority state.
Meghalaya tops the BJP list of states to target Congress. It wants to root out the rival party even from the minds of the people of Meghalaya, reports northeastindia.com.
As a masterstroke it has appointed a Catholic federal minister from the southern Indian state of Kerala as its man to head the party in Meghalaya elections. Federal Tourism Minister K J Alphons recently visited Meghalaya and countered the Congress and its policies in the state.
“The people from Meghalaya should not vote for them (Congress) and they should dethrone the Congress-led government in Meghalaya and elect an honest government in the state,” Alphonse said in a statement.
Alphonse, a former seminarian who had spent seven years in northeastern India, accused the Congress of having an anti-Christian mindset and urged the people of Meghalaya not to vote for it.
He also said that the state now demands an honest party that is unbiased while favor of all castes and creeds.
Alphons uses every occasion to deride the Congress. While addressing a public meeting of the party at Sohra, he outlined the work carried out by the Narendra Modi led government at the Centre and the various states as well.
“If BJP government comes to power in Meghalaya, it will usher in development which will benefit the people of the state,” he promised.
The federal minister’s statement has surprised the people of Meghalaya, who now wonder whether the BJP is using “religion” as the trump card for the Meghalaya Assembly polls.
Earlier, the party used development as its poll plank and blamed the Congress for all the problems in the country. But now it has shifted to the religion.
Alphons is a man of controversies as this is not the first time he made such types of statements countering Congress. Before this, he countered Congress when the price of the petrol raised high.
Congress on the issue found a new topic to criticize BJP over the promises of development made by the party before the Polls.
Later, Alphons countered Congress and said, ”The people who can afford cars and bikes, are the ones that are not starving, they should be able to pay for the hike.”
This statement of him raised controversy and irked the common man who manages to save very less for the worst time.