Meghalaya CM to convene MDA meeting over RS polls on June 17

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJune 4, 2020

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has said he would convene a meeting of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) for the election to the lone Rajya Sabha seat on June 17.

National People’s Party (NPP) state president Dr WR Kharlukhi is the consensus candidate of the MDA while the opposition Congress is fielding its former Mawphlang legislator Kennedy Khyriem for the seat.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Sangma, also the NPP national president, welcomed the announcement made by the Election Commission of India to conduct the Rajya Sabha elections on June 19.

“Our candidate Dr WR Khalukhi is also in the process of speaking to all the partners once again and I will also be speaking to them again regarding the elections that are coming up,” he said.

The chief minister further informed the meeting of the MDA on June 17 is to once again go through the entire election process. “This is to ensure that there are no mistakes as a lot of the MLAs are first timers and who have not voted in the Rajya Sabha election,” he said.

On the opposition move to get in touch with the ruling MLAs for their support, the NPP national president however said the MDA is very united in this particular case.

“I am very sure as we have discussed this long time  back also. Whatever concerns were there with the MLAs and all political parties, we have already discussed it time and again, so there is no issue in that,” he stated.

Earlier, NPP national vice president and deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong had categorically maintained that there is no possibility of cross voting by MDA MLAs even as he instead appealed to the Congress MLAs that they should vote for the official candidate of the MDA.

“As far as the MDA partners are concerned, there is no possibility of cross voting but of course we still have this opportunity to appeal to the Congress MLAs to kindly cross your vote in favour of Dr Kharlukhi,” Tynsong had said.