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| The meeting, titled “NE Region’s political parties convention on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016”, was convened by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma. |
Ten political parties of the Northeast and the JD(U) met in Guwahati
on Tuesday to announce their “unanimous opposition” to the Citizenship
(Amendment) Bill, 2016.
The meeting saw the participation of key BJP
allies in the region, including the National People’s Party, which
leads the coalition in Meghalaya; the Nationalist Democratic Progressive
Party, which leads the coalition in Nagaland; the Indigenous People’s
Front of Tripura (IPFT), which is an ally of the BJP in Tripura; and the
Mizo National Front (MNF), which is the ruling party in Mizoram.
The BJP’s allies, however, did not comment on pulling out of the NDA or the BJP-led regional North-East Democratic Alliance.
The meeting, titled “NE Region’s political parties convention on the
Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016”, was convened by Meghalaya Chief
Minister Conrad Sangma and hosted by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which
had earlier walked out of the BJP-led Assam government following
disagreements over the Bill.
Sangma told the media that the meeting passed a resolution that all
the parties “jointly opposed” the Bill, and a delegation would be
meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind soon to convey the opposition to the Bill in the Northeast.
