Dr Kharlukhi assures to push for complete exemption of Meghalaya from CAA

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJune 19, 2020

The National People’s Party (NPP), which is leading the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government, on Friday has won the lone Rajya Sabha seat in the state.

The MDA candidate Dr Wanwei Roy Kharlukhi was declared as elected representative to the Upper House of Parliament after he defeated the opposition Congress nominee Kennedy Khyriem by a margin of 20 votes.

The 64-year-old incumbent state president of the NPP has secured 39 votes. The MDA has 41 MLAs in its kitty.

However, one vote was declared as invalid while the Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) legislator Adelbert Nongrum decided to abstain from voting during the election.

Khyriem on the other hand got only 19 votes. The seat fell vacant after Congress’s Wansuk Syiem completed her six-year term in April last.

NPP’s national president and chief minister Conrad K Sangma and leaders of the coalition partners congratulated and felicitated Dr Kharlukhi on his victory.

Stating about his priorities, Dr Kharlukhi assured the people of the state to push for total exemption of Meghalaya from the purview of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which seeks to provide citizenship of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He said a resolution has already been passed by the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly.

“As an elected representative representing the MDA, I have to follow it up in Delhi as per the resolution that CAA should be exempted from the state of Meghalaya,” Dr Kharlukhi said.

The NPP state president also thanked all the MLAs of the different coalition partners in the MDA for extending their full support to him. “I thanked the Chief Minister, Assembly Speaker, Deputy CM, and all my colleagues in the party as well as the MDA for really giving me this privilege to serve the state.”

Asked, Dr Kharlukhi said, “I will try my level best to serve the people of the state in whatever capacity that I could. This is my first time as a person in governmental politics. I have been in electoral politics for so many years but in governmental politics let me be very frank with you I have to learn the process and I am a good learner in any field that I was, so I expect that I will not let my state down.”

Whether he would still continue to lead the NPP in the state after being elected as a Rajya Sabha MP, Dr Kharlukhi however said, “It will depend on the general conference of the NPP which we will be having very soon.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said the NPP is indeed thankful to its MDA partners. “We were together through thick and thin. Although temptations are always there but ultimately we came out victorious,” Tynsong said while congratulating Dr Kharlukhi.

The MDA is backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and regional parties which include United Democratic Party (UDP), Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP), People’s Democratic Front (PDF), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), KHNAM and Independents.