Four MLAs from Meghalaya join BJP

Shillong: Four MLAs from Meghalaya - H.M. Shangpliang, Benedic R. Marak, Ferlin Sangma, Samuel Sangma - joined the BJP on Wednesday. Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in Meghalaya in February 2023.

H.M. Shangpliang was a Trinamool Congress MLA. He said the state needed a change and the BJP would deliver it. "It is a great party which has influenced all of us as people are impressed with its development work." Marak and Ferlin Sangma were members of the National People's Party (NPP), the state's ruling party. Three of them resigned from their respective parties last month. Samuel Sangma was an independent MLA.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra were present at the joining ceremony.

Sarma, who is the party's pointsman for the region, said the joining of the four "experienced and respected'' political figures will mark a "new beginning" for the BJP in the state. The BJP could only win two seats in the 60-member assembly in the 2018 polls. While the NPP is a member of the BJP-led NDP, the alliance wasn't smooth.

He added that the northeast region has been mainstreamed completely under the Narendra Modi government. "Three BJP state governments (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Manipur) have been reelected to power, highlighting the party's address has become permanent in the region." He also expressed confidence in the upcoming Tripura and Nagaland polls as well.

The north-east will become a new engine of growth for the country under Modi, said Sambit Patra who oversees the BJP's organisational affairs for the region.