Parties makes promises of development only during polls: Praful Patel

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Praful Patel on Tuesday said political parties make "tall promises" of development only during elections.

"The problems of people are at their peak but political parties come with tall promises for development only during elections. For the past five years, the government was busy in corruption and now ahead of election all kinds of promises are being made. As if in a day or two, things will change," he said at an election rally here in the Garo Hills region of western Meghalaya.

The Garo Hills region, with 24 assembly segments, was once considered the "NCP heartland" due to the influence of the former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A. Sangma, who was one of the three founding-members of the NCP.

"Political parties will make all attempts to instill hope and keep their voters happy with food and other facilities but after the election, they will disappear and people will be forced to live in darkness. We should not get lured by parties who will keep us happy for two days and leave us adrift."

Lashing out at the Congress-led government, he said: "People had given their mandate to the Congress party but they have failed to develop the state. The road are in bad shape in different parts of Garo Hills... be it Baghmara, Phulbari or Tikrikilla, we have to search for the road. Is there is road or not, we are confused."

Criticising Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on the failure of the ambitious Mega Health Insurance Scheme, Patel felt that the government should have provided better health infrastructure instead of fooling the people.

"On paper, the scheme looks glossy and very big in its name but in reality, there is poor implementation and people have hardly received its benefit," he said.

After the rally, Patel told journalists that people are disillusioned with the ruling Congress due to lack of development and corruption in the implementation of various welfare programmes.

"People want change and NCP will be a formidable force to form the next government given the situation where people are not happy with the BJP as they pose a threat to the cultural identity of the people of the state," he said.

Moreover, Patel said that the National People's Party (NPP) founded by Sangma has been weakened after his demise and its current leaders will not be able to revive it, while adding that the BJP has not shown any respect to NPP at the centre.

Asked if NCP is willing to forge ties with Congress or NPP, he said: "We would not make any guesses; we will take decision at an appropriate item. If there is a situation, where we have to partner with any other parties, we would look for regional and secular parties."

--IANS

rrk/vd