BJP President boasted over 123 people seeking party tickets

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJanuary 19, 2023

 BJP state president Ernest Mawrie on Thursday a survey has indicated that the party will win 10-15 seats in the forthcoming assembly elections, slated to be held on February 27.

Mawrie told reporters that the party is fielding candidates from all the 60 constituencies. Over 123 people have applied for tickets from the BJP.

He said there are also constituencies which are having multiple aspirants like Dalu with four aspirants and Mahendraganj with six.

The BJP has only two MLAs – Sanbor Shullai (South Shillong) and AL Hek (Pynthorumkhrah).  

Mawrie said the state election committee will immediately sit and send all the names of the candidates to the central parliamentary committee headed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for its approval.

He said surveys conducted in three phases have indicated that the party will win from at least 10 to 15 seats in the 2023 polls.  

When asked, Mawrie however said they are expecting to win more than 15. “But you see we are in line with the survey…we are working on the ground,” he said while informing that the survey report was also submitted by him during the just concluded national executive committee meeting held in Delhi.

According to him, the 15 seats highlighted in the survey report are the seats where winnability is more for the party.

If the delay to announce the candidates will not affect the party’s performance in the upcoming polls, the BJP state president however said that as a national party, the BJP will not declare its candidates until and unless the dates of elections are declared.

“Since the Election Commission has declared the dates for the elections, we are also in the process of declaring the names of our candidates,” he added.

On the Congress’ allegation that the BJP has failed to take any action despite raising issues of corruption against the NPP-led MDA government, Mawrie however said, “So many scams I have pointed out and all have come out in the CAG report.”

He further defended by saying, “Though we are a part of the coalition government, we are not running the government. The chief minister and all the ministers are from their side. So you see we have always maintained that we have zero tolerance on corruption. We have also discussed this point in the national executive meeting.”

The BJP leader also reiterated that the decision to pull out of the MDA government is for the central leadership of the party to take.

“That decision will be taken by our central leaders. We have already discussed with them several times. The NPP is not a partner only in Meghalaya. They are in the NDA also so decision will be taken by the higher ups,” he said.

According to him, the people of the state will be the best judge and they will show it in the coming elections.