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Sangma sees post-poll realignment of secular forces

Nationalist Congress Party general secretary and former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma today said he visualised a fresh realignment of secular forces in the post-poll scenario.

Talking to mediapersons, he said there were many compulsions before the secular parties to go as partners of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance but the post-election scenario would create its own compulsions, which would lead to a fresh realignment of different parties.

Claiming that the NCP would try to be a national alternative, Sangma, however, added that their performance in the state of Uttar Pradesh and Maharastra would certainly play a crucial role in the emergence of the new political formation.

Discounting the impression that the Kargil issue will pay political dividends to the BJP, Sangma said two former defence ministers -- NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh -- will expose the lapses and failures of the government in dealing with the conflict during the election campaign.

Announcing that there would be a separate manifesto for the north-eastern states, Sangma said a 40-page manifesto would be released soon after its finalisation in the working committee meeting tomorrow. There would be a special thrust on the education of women in the NCP manifesto in order to provide them social, economic and political empowerment, he added.

Earlier, addressing a conference of the Nationalist Mahila Congress, Sangma said he belongs to a community where parental property goes to daughter, and not to son, and boys inherit their mother's title. He informed that his title 'Sangma' comes from his mother's side and wished that the country followed the same tradition and ideals necessary for the emancipation of women in society.

Extending his whole-hearted support to women in their struggle for 33 per cent reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, the NCP leader however said without social and economic empowerment, political empowerment would not prove meaningful.

Castigating the BJP for not knowing the art of governance, Sangma said the party had not been accepted to the people because it follows a religious agenda. It had no economic agenda, he observed.

About the Congress party, the expelled leader said that party had become a party of the past and had no future while regional parties such as Telugu Desam Party, DMK, AIADMK and the TMC had no national perspective and programmes.

UNI

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