New Delhi: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, Tuesday, announced that several parties, including his National People’s Party (NPP) and the BJP’s Tripura ally Tipra Motha, will merge to form a single political entity aimed at giving the entire Northeast a unified voice – an unprecedented development in the region’s politics.
Calling the move “historic”, Sangma said that a new party with its own flag and symbol will be formed as a result of the merger. A nine-member committee has been constituted, with NPP’s James Sangma as convener, to work out the modalities and present the structure of the proposed party within 45 days.
“For too long, we, the younger generation of Northeast leaders, have spoken about the same issues and concerns of our people, but from different platforms and political spaces. We have realised that our strength lies in unity, and it’s time to give our people one collective voice,” the leaders said in a joint statement.
It added: “Taking inspiration from the vision and legacy of great leaders who fought selflessly for the identity and development of our land, we have resolved to carry forward their ideals by coming together under a shared vision for the future of the Northeast…Our united effort is guided by a simple conviction that the people of the Northeast deserve to be heard, respected, and represented through a united and indigenous political voice at the national level.”
Former BJP national spokesperson and Nagaland minister Mmhonlumo Kikon, along with Assam’s Dima Hasao-based People’s Party founder Daniel Langthasa, were also signatories to the statement. The committee will reach out to other regional parties to bring them on board, Sangma added.
The leaders stated that the new front will emphasise crucial regional problems like property rights, preventing infiltration from neighbouring nations, defending the Sixth Schedule, and tackling racial discrimination against the people of Northeast.
Presently, no Northeast-based party other than the NPP, which, in 2019, attained the status of a national party, has a presence in more than one state in the region. Other than its home base Meghalaya, NPP has MLAs in Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.
While the name of the proposed party has not been disclosed, a banner reading “One Northeast” formed the backdrop of the leaders during the announcement. ThePrint had earlier reported that several leaders, including Debbarmad and Langthasa, had been using the phrase in recent months, hinting at an impending realignment.
When asked about the timeline of the deliberations that led to Tuesday’s announcement, Kikon said the merger had been in the works for the past year. The development comes close on the heels of the unification of the Naga People’s Front and the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) in Nagaland.
Both NPP and Tipra Motha are constituents of the Northeast Democratic Alliance (NEDA), the regional arm of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Sangma said that while they remain part of the alliance for now, the new party would contest elections independently.
The NPP chief, who is the son of former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma, said that mere alliances had failed to address the region’s issues, prompting the decision to forge a single, united political force.
Langthasa, whose father Nindu Langthasa, a Congress leader, was killed by Dima Halam Daogah militants in 2007, had launched the People’s Party in September. Soon after, Pradyot wrote to him stressing the need for a common platform.
In October 2023, while campaigning for Tipra Motha in Tripura, Sangma had urged the indigenous communities of the Northeast to join hands and work toward a “constitutional solution” for the region’s tribal populations spanning Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim.
(Edited by Sampurna Panigrahi)
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