TURA, OCT 10: On Friday evening, Bholarbitha village in West Garo hills witnessed displayed of strength by the Congress when chief minister Mukul Sangma addressed an election rally. At least 3000 people gathered to listen to the chief minister who made a last minute pitch to drum up support for the Congress candidate Sader Hussain contesting the GHADC polls.
Hussain is one of the non-tribal candidates, who is in fray and is seeking to be elected from Shyamnagar constituency.
The Garo hills based ngos have urged the electorates to boycott the GHADC polls as a show of protest for allowing the non-tribal to participate in the elections.
The huge crowd turned out at Bholarbitha had to wait as Sangma was slated to address the meeting at 3:30 pm but it was not until 7:30 pm that the chief minister addressed the rally.
In Shyamnagar constituency, it is a three cornered fight between Congress, NPP and BJP. Hossain of Congress is pitted against NPP’s Esmatur Mominin and BJP’s Iqbal Marak.
Former MLA Abdus Saleh also attended the meeting and said, “In the beginning of GHADC, non-tribals have been elected representatives of the council. There was no opposition by anyone as we being genuine residents of the region. This current situation did not start now but in 2008 when the NPP played dirty and sought to divide.Now they too have a non-tribal candidate and it shows how they have cheated everyone”.
Speaking at the rally, Congress candidate Hossain, who has shifted his loyalty from Purno Sangma’s party said, “Earlier I was in the wrong team. This time I am hopeful of making it through to serve the people of my constituency as party of the ruling party of the state”.
Mukul blamed NPP for playing dirty politics, which he said has angered the public in Garo hills. He said, “I would have loved to be here earlier but things have become dirty everywhere. Dirty politics is being played in the hills and this time I had to spend more time in the hills to make them understand what exactly the council stood for. Garo hills have always been peace loving but there are forces that are dividing us and we cannot allow that to happen”.
The Congress, which is fighting all 29 seats, is confident of a good show. The party has fielded two non-tribal candidates.
+ There are no comments
Add yours