SHILLONG, AUG 27: National People’s Party (NPP) state president WR Kharlukhi today said the opposition Congress will be gone from both the autonomous district councils (ADCs) of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills region in the upcoming elections to be held next year.
“I assured you that in both the KHADC and JHADC elections, the Congress will not be a force as it will be a fight between the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) partners. You marked my words,” Kharlukhi told reporters here on Monday.
His statement came following the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA)’s victory in the twin bye-elections when chief minister Conrad K Sangma and Pius Marwein of the United Democratic Party (UDP) won the South Tura and Ranikor seats.
Terming the victory as an MDA win, Kharlukhi said, “We are happy because we won with a thumping margin in South Tura but even then though we lose the Ranikor seat but at least the Congress did forfeited its security deposit.”
Asked that the Congress’ vote bank in South Tura has not changed, the NPP state president said, “Yes it has not changed but they lost by a margin of over 8,000 plus.”
Whether the NPP’s defeat in Ranikor will affect its relationship with the UDP, Kharlukhi however said that the just concluded bye-election has nothing to do with the MDA.
“It will rather strengthen the MDA. In fact we are increasing our strength and MDA will remain till 2023 and even after 2023,” he said.
Reacting to another query on what if there is backstabbing from the partner, Kharlukhi however said, “You should look at the history of UDP chief Donkupar Roy.He is a man of principles he had never gone back on his words. If he promised the Congress he sticks to it, if he promised the regional parties, the NCP he sticks to his words.”
Stating that the MDA partners will be fighting on their own in the upcoming MDC elections, he said, “Because this coalition it was stiched only after elections, it was not a pre-poll alliance, so we are free and we may fight elections but as MDA we are together.”
Further, the NPP state president said that there is nothing for the opposition Congress to be happy (due to the loss of the NPP in Ranikor) and suggested that they need to read between the lines.
“I don’t see any reason for them to be happy. Yes, if they want to be happy for the sake of being happy nobody can stop them,” he said.
“I pity the Congress they are like in between the devil and the deep blue sea. If they still keep Mukul Sangma as their leader, they will never be able to form the government and everybody knows about his dictatorial attitude and if they throw Mukul out, Congress is gone in Meghalaya. This is the situation that the Congress is facing in Meghalaya,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kharlukhi said that the NPP will post-mortem to know the reason behind the defeat in Ranikor, which was recently given a civil sub-division by the MDA government.
Asked whether the decision to give the Ranikor civil sub-division was a failure, he however said, “If we can we should bring development to the people. If we can we should give everybody a civil sub division if we have the money for the convenient of the people.”
He said that it is also not that the people of the constituency had betrayed the party but it is just that they wanted to elect a new leader.
By Our Reporter
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