Shillong, Mar 25 : There is no rift between the co-founders of the Nationalist Congress Party(NCP)–Sharad Pawar and Purno A Sangma–on their contrary stand on the Congress-led UPA vis-à-vis the BJP-led NDA.

Mr Sangma, who is on an anti-Congress mood ever since the imposition of President’s Rule in Meghalaya, triggered a major controversy saying that he would campaign for the BJP and other non-Congress candidates in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

”I am not supporting the BJP, but its candidates–Kiren Rijiju and SS Ahluwalia. I will campaign for them in recognition of their exemplary work,” Mr Sangma told UNI here.

Mr Rijiju is seeking re-election from Arunachal West parliamentary seat, while Mr Ahluwalia, a long time friend of Mr Sangma, is contesting from Darjeeling constituency on a BJP ticket and supported by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha led by Bimal Gurung.

In fact, the NCP working committee, he said, had decided not to have any alliance with any political party at the national level, but the NCP was free to choose its allies in their respective states, excluding the BJP.

”Look, we have entered into an alliance with the Congress only in Maharashtra, but in Goa where we are supporting the Congress government, we have decided to fight them,” Mr Sangma said.

In the same way, he said, the NCP will be fighting against the Congress in Gujarat, Bihar, Lakshadweep and Chattisgarh in the election.

”Therefore, my support to the two BJP candidates is not based on any political affiliation of a person, but at my personal level,” the veteran NCP leader said.

He further pointed out that even if Rijiju was a Congress nominee, ”I would take one step forward rather than two steps backwards in helping this young upcoming potential leader in the region.” In the meantime, Mr Sangma is working to revive the North East People’s Forum set up in 2003, ahead of the last parliamentary elections.

The objective of the NEPF is to mobilise all non-Congress parties to come under one banner to oust the Congress in the North Eastern states and to address burgeoning problems of the region, including insurgency and illegal immigration.

However, the NEPF did not work because of the political confusion in the party functionaries of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the BJP. But this time, the NEPF is all set to roll with both the major parties–AGP and BJP–because of the electoral alliance between the two.

Eight Northeastern states send all together 25 MPs to the Lok Sabha, 14 of whom come from Assam alone. The remaining 11 seats are allotted to other seven tiny states with Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura with two seats each and Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim with one seat each.

The NCP is contesting only in four Parliamentary seats–Karbi Anglong-NC hills, Dibrugarh, Guwahati (all in Assam) and Tura in Meghalaya. It has decided to support non-Congress candidates in all the Northeastern states besides, North Bengal.