NPP proposes for alliance with NDA, BJP yet to decide

National People's Party has proposed for an alliance with NDA led by BJP, claiming that it will win at least a dozen Lok Sabha seats from parts of the country, even as the BJP leadership was yet to decide, the party sources said here today.
NPP leaders including P A Sangma were in constant touch with BJP President Rajnath Singh and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to revive the coalition ahead of Lok Sabha polls next month, the sources said.
A two-member committee appointed by NPP President P A Sangma has already met Singh and Modi on February 13 and February 14 respectively, and held cordial talks and both understood each other's poll strategy, Sunil Bhargawa, one of the committee members and Rajasthan unit president, told PTI.

Arvind Netam, former union minister, was another member in the committee, he said.
NPP claimed to add over a dozen Lok Sabha seats to NDA's tally if alliance was forged between the two political parties, Bhargawa said.
Country's northeast region from where Sangma and his daughter Agatha represented Lok Sabha seats, NPP does have a strong hold and could win five to six seats, Bhargawa said, quoting the committee members' meeting.

Besides northeast, the party could win one Lok Sabha seat from Chattisgarh, two seats each from Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand, and three to four from Rajathan, Bhargawa claimed.

Out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan, BJP had four, one Independent, and 21 of Congress, and if NPP was given four seats to contest under alliance, the BJP would be in a win-win situation of its mission 25, Bhargawa said.
"It would be in the interest of BJP and its PM candidate to look into the alliance," he said.
As Ramvilas Paswan could forge an alliance with BJP as the NDA partner, NPP proposed its plan to BJP for a better poll prospects in next month's elections, he indicated.
Meanwhile, NPP leader Kirori Lal Meena, who had won the Lok Sabha seat from Dausa as an Independent candidate, and whose leadership brought four seats in Rajasthan assembly last year, told PTI that he would not be contesting the Lok Sabha polls this time.

When asked whether he would prefer to make alliance with NDA led by BJP, Meena was reluctant to say positively but commented "in Rajasthan NPP MLAs are against the BJP leadership...Let us see how the NPP alliance with NDA at Central level emerges.