GUWAHATI: The National People's Party ( NPP ), founded five years ago by one of the tallest leaders of the northeast, Purno Agitok Sangma, is keeping a safe distance from BJP to keep itself in pole position to oust Congress and capture Christian-majority Meghalaya The late Sangma's 39-year-old son, Conrad, who is in charge of the party's affairs, has the target in clear sight but knows that people's expectations from him are high. A holder of a BBA (Entrepreneurial Management) degree and an MBA (Finance) degree from University of Pennsylvania and Imperial College, University of London, Conrad says he is walking down the path laid by his illustrious father to work for tribals and the religious minorities.The NPP is a partner of BJP in Manipur's coalition government but Conrad did not choose to team up with BJP in Nagaland and in his home state. "In Manipur we have a post-poll alliance with BJP. In Nagaland, we have gone into a pre-poll alliance with NPF without any seat sharing agreement. This is a pre-poll agreement for a post-poll agreement ," he said.Explaining what he called a "complicated equation", the suave Conrad said NPP did not want to go with BJP in Meghalaya because of pressures from within the party and to maintain the party's ideologies. "In a small state likes ours, we have organizational pressures to fight alone, like we did in Manipur. We also have our own ideologies and we need to maintain them," he said.When he asked if BJP's Hindutva tag came in the way of an alliance, he replied, "I don't want to comment on the ideologies of another party. There are bigger issues to be addressed at the moment. " He said he is confident that NPP will clinch victory on its own.The church in Meghalaya is concerned about anti-Christian incidents in the country but has not been as explicit in voicing its concern as in Nagaland. Conrad said, "The church is responsible and doesn't get involved in politics. It is only asking for a clean election. Of course, the church is worried about the atrocities against Christians and it has only made the people aware of these facts.""It is the Congress which is taking help of religion to fight election. It is a divisive tactic they are using to cover their failures," he said.Conrad has promised that NPP will succeed in delivering all that Congress have promised and failed to deliver. "We will provide good and effective governance. There is lack of it now and Meghalaya is at the bottom of the social indicators. Our priorities will be to provide better infrastructure (roads), drinking water, electricity, mobile connectivity besides focusing on the health and education sectors, which are in a very poor state of affairs," he said.Conrad's biggest challenge is to unite the Garo hills, where demands for a separate state are still on, with the Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills. "There is nothing wrong in a tribe having aspirations for itself. But at the same time I can't hate somebody else. I strongly believe that a right economic agenda will unite the state. Our endeavor is to take everyone along in development," he said."People are waiting to see if NPP will survive without PA Sangma. We are what we are today because of his training and guidance," he said on his father. Like father, like son, Conrad's visions are not limited to Meghalaya only. After Manipur and Nagaland, Conrad's next stop is Mizoram, which goes to polls by this year-end.

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