National parties will never understand the sentiments of the NE people: CM

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 2, 2019

SHILLONG: Chief Minister and National People’s Party (NPP) national president Conrad K Sangma today accused the national parties of “disrespecting” the sentiments of the people of North East region including Meghalaya while cautioning the centre to desist from taking the North East people for granted.

Sangma was addressing an election rally at 2nd Ground, Polo to drum up support for the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) candidate Jemino Mawthoh on United Democratic Party (UDP) symbol from Shillong parliamentary seat and attended by UDP chief Donkupar Roy, NPP vice president Prestone Tynsong, HSPDP president KP Pangniang, PDF president I Marbaniang and leaders of different political parties supporting the MDA government.

Recalling the time when national parties would get a lot of support throughout the region, the NPP national chief however said but in the recent past we have seen many examples of how national parties will never be able to understand the sentiments of the NE people.

“We have seen many situations where we will find national parties sitting in Delhi and deciding what is good or bad for the people of our region that is unacceptable my friends,” he said.

Sangma cited that the Citizenship Amendment Bill was a clear example of how the national parties will never understands the sentiments of North East people.

“The Congress party today comes up and says we were the ones who stopped the CAB from being tabled. My friends I would like to ask the Congress party please asked your MPs from Assam have they not write to the Prime Minister congratulating him and telling him that the CAB must be passed,” he said.

Asserting the importance of combining the regional forces, the chief minister said, “We must come together so that our voices can always be heard. If all 25 MPs come together Delhi is bound to listen to what we say and we saw this when the CAB came up.”

Appealing to people of Khasi and Jaintia Hills region to vote for Mawthoh, the chief minister said, “Even if Dr Jemino Mawthoh is the candidate who is sponsored by the UDP but he is the candidate of the government and he is the candidate of the chief minister. Therefore it is responsibility of every single worker and every single leader of the NPP and all political parties in our coalition to ensure that Dr Jemino Mawthoh wins with a thumping majority in this coming election.”