AICC general secretary Luizinho Faleiro on Friday urged political parties in the Northeast, that joined hands with the BJP in forming governments, not to look only at short-term gains but work together to “protect the interests” of the region.

Faleiro, who was on a two-day visit to Meghalaya, met Congress legislators, members of district councils, office-bearers of the state Congress unit, Youth Congress, Mahila Congress and other frontal organisations at Congress Bhawan here on Friday.

Later, he told reporters, “We must work together, whether it is the Congress, the National People’s Party (NPP), the United Democratic Party (UDP), the Mizo National Front (MNF) or other parties. We must come together for the interest of the Northeast and this message should be spread.”

Stating that parties whichworked with the BJP in the Northeast should not look at short-term gains, Faleiro said they should look at the long-term interests of the region because the BJP’s agenda has been very clear — “to annihilate the Northeast”.

The BJP heads the governments in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Manipur and is part of the NPP-led government in Meghalaya, the NDPP-led government in Nagaland and the MNF government in Mizoram.

“They (the parties) should not be happy and have the pleasure of ruling for a short time, because by staying in power with the BJP-led NDA as well as the Northeast Democratic Alliance (Neda), they are helping the BJP to ruin the region and the country,” Faleiro said.

He also cited the BJP’s approach and attitude towards the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which has been strongly opposed in the Northeast, besides removal of the special category status to the northeastern states, and the abolition of the Planning Commission, which had benefited the region and the country in the past.

“The Northeast has lost everything. The region was getting 80 to 90 per cent grant, and 10 per cent loan in the past, but today it is gone. Whatever money was saved and utilised through the DoNER ministry was for the northeastern states in the past, but now they (NDA government) are not giving it to the region,” the AICC general secretary said.

Asked if the Congress wanted to work together with the NPP and other parties in Meghalaya, Faleiro said his appeal was to protect the interests of the Northeast. “We should fight together to save the Northeast,” Faleiro said.

On the Congress losing power in all states in the Northeast, the AICC leader said the people would realise the “ill motives of the BJP”. He admitted the setback for his party in the recent Lok Sabha elections despite having enlightened the people on several issues like unemployment and collapse of the economy, among others.

Faleiro said the Congress was looking to organise and restructure the party and this would happen within a month.

The Congress won only four seats in the Northeast out of the total 25 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.