A fight between suave, savvy equals

SHILLONG, FEB 6: Both are young, literate and savvy. On the surface Nongthymmai Congress candidate and Meghalaya assembly speaker Charles Pyngrope and North Eastern Hills University (NEHU) professor and United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate Jemino Mawthoh looks like Gen-Now politicians.

Theoretically, forty-eight year old Mawthoh and fifty-two year old Pyngrope fits into the sobriquet of the modern day politicians with progressive agendas and who, if needed, can communicate with the youths through face-book and mobile enabled messages with the same ease as speaking to a group of oldies.

However, Mawthoh is slightly junior in electoral politics having contested and lost the 2008 elections on an NCP ticket, but Pynrgope having been a legislator for two terms is carrying with him the experience of a seasoned politician who knows how to read the pulse of the voters.

But that doesn’t deter Mawthoh from trying to get elected for the first time as he has had experience of having been the president of the Synjuk Ki Seng Samla Shnong (SSSS) and took up issue relating to youths. Neither does Pyngrope take his opponents lightly as he told this website, “All the candidates are good and I am not taking any one of them lightly.”

While Mawthoh is still a clean slate, Pynrgope has managed to steer clear of any controversy during his two tenures as Sohryngkham legislator. In fact the only time Pyngrope got into political imbroglio was when his name started doing the round for the post of the chief minister when DD Lapang and Mukul Sangma were sparring. That Pyngrope has manage to steer from any controversy is no small achievement in an era where politicians get into sticky wicket more often.

Pyngrope seems confident of being elected the third time round as he says that one-fourth of the electorates in the Nongthymmai are from his old constituency Sohryngkham who will certainly vote for him. He also says that this segment of voters have seen the developmental work he undertook as a legislator and those who are new also knows about it and therefore he is expecting them to vote for him so that he can continue his good work.

Mawthoh, on the other hand, says if he is elected he will undertake a “planned development” of his constituency and also undertake social profiling of the electorates, working on waste-management and poverty elevations.- By Associate Editor Suraj Joshi