Agartala, Jan. 30: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is all set to play a significant role in the coming Assembly elections in Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland.
The party will contest all 60 seats in Meghalaya, seven in Nagaland and in 16 of the 60 seats in Tripura.
In Tripura, the party has got a boost with four senior leaders of the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura joining the NCP today.
Announcing this at a news conference here, NCP general secretary P.A. Sangma today said in the ensuing elections in Nagaland, the NCP would support the Nagaland People?s Front (NPF) against the ruling Congress.
?From tomorrow, I will start the campaign there along with Union defence minister and Samata Party leader George Fernandez,? he said.
Sangma claimed that the NPF would ?give the Congress a run for its money? in Nagaland.
Regarding Meghalaya, he said his party has projected MP Robert Kharshing as the chief ministerial candidate.
?The people in Meghalaya are fed up with coalitions in the past three decades. For the first time since 1972, the state will have a single-party government,? Sangma said.
He said the NCP was aware of the possibilities of militant violence in the run-up to the February 26 polls in Tripura, but ?we will still contest on our own?.
He said development was a ?precondition to peace? and once economic development of Northeast became a reality, there would be no insurgency.
Describing the peace talks between the Centre and the NSCN (I-M) as a ?step in the right direction,? Sangma said he expected the talks to be successful, ushering in an era of peace and stability in the Northeast.
He also said that the NCP had full faith in chief election commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh, hoping that that the elections would be free and fair.