IMPHAL, March 21 — Former speaker of the lok sabha and general secretary of the nationalist Congress Party (ncp) Purno A Sangma has given the green signal to end the internal conflict in the ncp state unit. He also said that a central observers team will be sent to Manipur within this month to sort out the ongoing row between two factions of the party in the wake of it’s “controversial” state unit office bearer election that lead to the locking of the NCP state unit office here since February.
The indication to send party observers was conveyed to N Radhakanta,a leader of the NCP who fought the last Assembly election on an ncp ticket during his recent trip to New Delhi. “Sangma expressed his interest in reactivating the party unit here in view of the forthcoming Lok Sabha election, as there is potential” Radhakanta said.
“NCP Manipur unit is in bad shape now, as it is divided into two groups-one led by Tiken and the other led by Radhakanta following an alleged ‘controversial’ presidential election engineered by its president Sapam Tiken recently that developed a ‘misunderstading’ among the party workers.
“The anti-tiken ncp workers charged former president S Tiken who has been elected again as it’s new president for the second term with “concealing party’s central authority’s election procedure this time”. “Most of the ncp leaders belonging to anti-tiken faction are willing to bring about a settlement in view of the Lok Sabha elections slated for next year.
“In the last assembly election NCP won three seats. However all of them now merged with the congress (I). Mention may me made here that most of the NCP candidates in the last assembly elections included former chief minister, ex-ministers and ex-speakers of the state.
Presently there are only 11 NCP MPs in the parliament. “Although the anti-tiken ncp workers raise a hue and cry now and then, none of their opponents in the Tiken camp are yet to raise their voice.” Central observers scheduled to arrive here are of ncp’s central election authority.