AICC general secretary and in-charge for Assam, CP Joshi on Thursday blamed the BJP for the ongoing blockade of two National Highways in Manipur and said that the Congress is going to form the Government for the fourth consecutive term in the State.
The senior AICC leader said this while interacting with the mediapersons after coming out from the meeting of Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief of eight north-eastern States at Rajiv Bhavan in Guwahati.
“Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh will come to power in Manipur again after the March 4 and March 8 polls. The people of the State have the governance of BJP in the last two and half years. They (People of the state) also know who is behind the NH blockades,” said Joshi adding that the Congress is going to take the anti-people policies of the BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to the people of the poll bound State and in other States of the region too.
The AICC leader also asked all the eight PCC leaders to mobilize support against the Narendra Modi Government’s “anti-people” decisions such as demonetisation and also towards the emerging threat from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The United Naga Council (UNC) sponsored blockades of NH 2 and NH 53 since November 1 has led to severe problems in different parts of the poll bound States, particularly affecting the availability of fuel and other essential commodities. Although the Government has arranged for movement of goods trucks under security cover, but the situation is far from being normal.
The UNC, spearheading the blockade, is scheduled to meet other Naga organisations on January 7 for the “next course of action”. The BJP, an ally of the Naga People’s Front in adjoining Nagaland, is believed to have been soft on the blockade-enforcers to put pressure on the state’s Congress Government.
Joshi indicated the People’s Resurgence and Justice Alliance, the party Sharmila floated after ending her marathon fast on August 9 last year, would not bother the Congress much. “There is political space for everyone,” he said adding that she was trying to create a political space “like everyone else”.
“NEDA does not have the maturity of the Congress Coordination Committee for the region. A bigger worry for the party and the Northeast is the RSS that is trying to impose Hindutva on indigenous cultures and to distort our history,” said former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who was also present in the meeting.