By IANS,
Shillong : Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Lok Sabha speaker Purno Sangma Friday said he would not return to the Congress on political compulsions.
“I am the monarch of what I shall be,” Purno said about his political future after some of his trusted aides quit the NCP and joined the Congress Thursday.
“If others are fools, you cannot help it. I cannot be one of them,” Purno said about the activists’ party switch over.
Political observers say, Purno is stunned by the current defection of his party men.
The defectors include Sangma’s most trusted confidants Purno K. Sangma, former chief executive member of Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, and Edmund K. Sangma. They are brothers-in-law of the former Lok Sabha speaker.
“E.K. Sangma and Purno K. Sangma are my very close relatives of my family. They are the cousins of my wife. I could not believe that they would cause any problem in the (social) family,” Sangma said.
The NCP leader, however, accused the Congress for the current political instability in the state. He said that continuous infighting within the Congress was depriving the state of any development.
“Whatever is happening in the state is shameful. Meghalaya has no respect for rule of the law. The state is functioning completely undemocratically,” he said.
A jubilant Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said: “They (NCP defectors) have taken the right decision to join the Congress party and I believe they would be able to serve the people of the state better.”
Hinting that more NCP members would be joining the Congress party in the near future, Mukul said, “It is a question of like-minded people having faith and principle in the Congress ideology to join. It would happen in the near future.”
However, he made it clear that the Congress party has not discussed Purno Sangma’s return to the the Congress party.