Conard Sangma, Meghalaya’s youngest chief minister and leader of the National People’s Party, is in constant political tussle with its big brother in the NDA, the BJP. Days after making a scathing attack on the BJP’s Manipur unit—that the BJP led government in the state tried to kill him through terrorists—Sangma blocked the entry of the CBI in his state to carry out investigation without his permission. Meghalaya is the ninth state to take such move, but the first NDA-ruled state.
Political observers feel Sangma’s jibe is too regional than being an attack against the BJP government at the Center. Sangma is not fighting the election in Manipur as an alliance of the BJP or any other party. His party is a formidable political force in Manipur and he has established himself as a man-to-watch-for in Northeast. He is seen as a more acceptable face in Northeast with presence in almost all states except Tripura. He is presently working on to make inroads in Tripura, too.
Son of late P.A. Sangma, former Lok Sabha speaker and one of the most able ministers of the Narsimha Rao cabinet in 90s, Conard is not known in the mainland India like his father. But he is more popular than his father in Northeast. His father’s closeness with Atal Behari Vajpayee brought him closer to NDA. He continued his relation with the BJP even after Narendra Modi came to the top leadership. But what made him apathetic towards the BJP is his deteriorating relations with some local leaders of the party in Northeast. Neither he enjoys good relations with N. Biren Singh, Manipur’s chief minister, nor does he maintain bonhomie with Himanta Biswa Sharma, the most powerful BJP leader in Northeast today and the chief minister of Assam.
The Manipur chief minister’s refusal to give important cabinet berths to NPP (Sangma’s party) leaders made Sangma an irate ally partner.
Sangma is also a disgruntled politician when it comes to solving inter-state border dispute between Meghalaya and Assam. Unlike Sarbananda Sonolwal, Himanta takes more nationalistic and pro-Hindu approach and plays Assamese-Ashmita cards against all rival political parties and even bordering states. Sangma is against all these. He is emerging as a true secular leader in the Northeast and would like to script a new era in the future in Northeast. He knows the support of Modi would be needed for that. So he maintains good relations with Modi and Amit Shah even though his tussle with their followers in Northeast is at its highest peak.
The halting of the CBI in the state will be a symbolic act like many other non-NDA chief ministers like Uddhav Thackeray and Mamata Banerjee did. Under Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, CBI can act in a state in two situations—either the chief minister of a state should call them, or the court (high courts or Supreme Court) should refers any case to the agency. And in the case of court order, the state’s embargo will not hold on the ground.
But through this power tussle, Sangma has showed a signal to the BJP at the Center that he would be the leader the BJP would have to take into consideration in the future days, not their own primary faces in Northeast of India.
